Furthermore, as regarded certain noxious trades, including slaughter-houses and manufactories causing effluvia, which were certified by the Medical Officer of Health to be a nuisance, or injurious to the health of the inhabitants of the neighbourhood, the owner or occupier of the premises might be proceeded against, and, on conviction, fined.
Against the monster evil of “overcrowding” Parliament made an attempt to legislate specifically, thus formally recognising the necessity for dealing with it.
“Whenever the Medical Officer of Health shall certify to the local authority that any house is so overcrowded as to be dangerous or prejudicial to the inhabitants, and the inhabitants shall consist of more than one family, the local authority shall cause proceedings to be taken before the justices to abate such overcrowding, and the justices shall thereupon make such order as they may think fit, and the person permitting such overcrowding shall forfeit a sum not exceeding forty shillings.”
And an effort was also made to curtail the practice of living in underground rooms and cellars by defining what such a room or cellar was, and making liable to a penalty “whoever let, occupied, or knowingly suffered to be occupied, any room or cellar contrary to the Act.”[57]
As money was essential for the working of the Acts, over and above that for which rates could be levied, power was given both to the Metropolitan Board of Works and to the Vestries and District Boards of Works to borrow money on the security of the rates, and repayable by instalments, “provided always that no money should be so borrowed by Vestries or District Boards without the previous sanction in writing of the said Metropolitan Board.”
There were to be auditors of the accounts of the local authorities, who were to be annually elected at the same time and in the same manner as members of the Vestry.
Finally, each Vestry and District Board of Works was to make to the Metropolitan Board of Works an annual report of its proceedings, including a report from the Medical Officer of Health; and the Metropolitan Board was to make an annual report of its proceedings, and present a copy to one of Her Majesty’s Secretaries of State.
The third of these Acts, “The Metropolitan Building Act, 1855,” amended the existing laws relating to buildings in the metropolis, and laid down an elaborate code for the regulation and supervision of all new buildings. Most of this code related to the structure—the thickness of walls, &c., &c.—and had primarily in view the security of the house from destruction by fire. Only a few sections in the Act related to the infinitely more important matter of adequate provision for the health of the inhabitants, and those dealt with it in the most niggardly way.
A minimum of one hundred square feet was laid down as satisfying the requirements of open space for air and ventilation around a dwelling; a minimum of seven feet in height was held to satisfy the requirements of any room in a house.