Lodging-House Committee : report of the Medical Officer of Health.

  • Liverpool (England). Medical Officer of Health.
Date:
1864
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Lodging-House Committee : report of the Medical Officer of Health. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    on the condition of daugerous buildings. In Liverpool, 5649 different houses have been registered, but all tenements which cease to be used for lodgers are struck off the list; leaving at present 1185 under the supervision of one Chief and four District Inspectors. othly. In London the Inspectors visit the houses during the day between the hours of 11 and 4 o’clock. Night visits are never made without the written order of a Commissioner, and then by two Inspectors. In Liverpool the houses are visited by the single District Inspector during the day, and during three nights of the week. The Medical Officer of Health considers that an alteration may be beneficially made in the Liverpool arrangements, and begs to propose :— 1 stly. That no visit shall be paid by an Inspector to any Lodging-House after the hour of six p.m., or during any period of the night, without the written order of the Medical Officer of Health. 2ndly. That before unregistered houses, supposed to contain lodgers, be visited at night, a caution against the offence thus committed be given . personally, or by letter, to the tenant of the dwelling. 3rdly. That all night inspections of registered or unregistered Lodging- Houses be made by two Inspectors. 4thly. That all Lodging-House Keepers applying for six or more lodgers for any single room, have in such room single beds for each lodger, before registration be granted. The Medical Officer ventures to support these alterations, firstly, by the expe- rience of the Lodging-House Inspectors of London ; and, secondly, by the fact, that during the last year the night visits paid to the Lodging-Houses in Liver- pool were 12,486, and the offences discovered of overcrowding only 46 ; shew- ing how vast an amount of annoyance and discomfort had been sustained by the innocent in the discovery of the guilty. It was this result, disclosed in the working of the system, that induced the Medical Officer to desire the mitiga- v tion of a law which, pressing for good purposes on the liberty of the subject, should be exercised with extreme caution. He believes that the seventh proposal will not be found to press unduly on the keepers of Lodging-Houses, as it need not have a retrospective effect. Of the 3350 rooms at present registered, only 255 are allowed to contain six or more lodgers, and of these 59 are already furnished with single beds. The benefits of this arrangement, on sanitary grounds, are self-evident; but it will also serve as a partial guarantee against overcrowding. This is practically found to be the case in rooms so furnished.