And so all these evil practices were very widely indulged in; for though there were many respectable men among builders of small houses, there were many who, regardless of all consequences, covered the suburbs with “small, rotten houses.” And immense numbers of the people were absolutely unprotected either by the Government or by the local authority from abuses which entailed upon them ill-health and death, and from practices which created and spread disease throughout the community.
The Medical Officer of Health for St. George-the-Martyr, Southwark, referring to “the dishonest and scandalous way” in which some houses were built, said (1877–8):—
“From the greed of a few builders this traffic in human life, and in what makes life valuable, is openly and defiantly carried on. Under such circumstances full health is impossible. Yet for the success and permanence of natural existence a high standard is absolutely necessary.”
Of builders such as these it may be truly said that having created a damnosa hereditas in one place, they moved on to create fresh ones in others, and no one prevented them.
So glaring were these evils that a Select Committee, which sat in 1874 on the Metropolitan Buildings and Management Bill of that year, recommended—
“That the District Surveyor or the Metropolitan Board shall have full power to stop the progress of any building in which the materials or construction is calculated to be dangerous or injurious to health, and to summon the builder or owner before the magistrate.”
At the rate houses were being built, the defective Building Laws were a grave disaster.
In the two parishes of Bow and Bromley in Poplar, in the five years ending March, 1878, notices were approved for 1,981 new buildings.
In Hackney, in the year 1876–7, notices were given of intention to erect 800 new houses, and the extension of streets and houses into the fields had gone on so rapidly that by that time there were but few fields left in the district, or even large grounds belonging to any of the houses.