C O N T E X T 1 7 2 : J U N E 2 0 2 2 15 REGULATIONS AND CODES the time of the Peterloo Massacre of 1819, where Manchester workers were protesting against a lack of political representation, barely one in 10 males could vote at national elections. The Reform Act 1832 had extended the vote to small landowners, shopkeepers and householders who paid more than £10 per year. But when, for example, the Report on the Sanitary Conditions of the Labouring Population of Great Britain was published in 1842, the labouring population of Great Britain had no vote and no political power. The governance of towns evolved from medieval boroughs, corporations and aldermen, to the municipal corporations of the Municipal Corporations Act 1835 (with the members elected by ratepayers), through to the Local Government Act 1894, which created a two-tier system of counties, and urban and rural district councils. For a large part of this period the promotion of the interests of the poor depended on the magnanimity of the wealthy. Turning to building regulation and control, London led the way. There were serious fires in the City of London in 1133 and in Southwark in 1212, and other smaller fires. Fire could mean impoverishment or worse. Below are extracts relating to buildings from the City of London Wardmote regulations in the Liber Albus, a compilation of laws and civic regulations of London from as early as 1067 but principally of the 13th and 14th centuries, here translated by Henry Thomas Riley: Item, that no chimney be from henceforth made, except of stone, tiles, or plaster, and not of timber, under pain of being pulled down. Item, that no house within the liberties be otherwise covered than with lead, tile, or stone; and if any such there be, that the same be forth with rased [sic] by the constables and scavagers, they taking for their trouble fourpence. Item, if any purprestures (encroachments) are made in the streets or lanes, or upon the walls or fosses of the City, or upon the Thames, or other the common soil within theWard. That the Penthouses and Jetties of Houses shall be so high that folks on horseback may ride beneath them. And they shall be of the hight of nine feet, at the very least. Scavagers were employed to watch for transgressions. Their duties are outlined in an oath: You shall swear, that you shall diligently oversee that the pavements within your Ward are well and rightly repaired, and not made too high in nuisance of the neighbours; and that the ways, streets, and lanes are cleansed of dung and of all manner of filth, for the decency of the City; and that the chimneys, furnaces, [and] reredoses, are of stone, and sufficiently defended against peril of fire; and if you find anything to the contrary, you shall shew unto the Alderman, that so the Alderman may ordain for the amendment thereof. And this you shall not fail to do, So God you help, and the Saints. A picture emerges of medieval London with a set of regulations and a means of control, part of a system for the safe and efficient operation of the city. Other towns and cities in England were affected by large fires, but local systems of building control are thought to have been patchy. The arrival of the Black Death in 1348, and its continuing presence, dramatically reduced the size of the population. Two hundred and fifty years were to pass before new town building recommenced. So let us resume the story in 1666. Rebuilding of London Act 1666 Produced in response to the Great Fire of London of 1666, the act (passed in 1667) states that it is for ‘the speedy Restoration whereof, and for the better Regulation, Uniformity and Gracefulness of such new Buildings as shall be erected for Habitations in order thereunto; and to the End that great and outrageous Fires (through the blessing of Almighty God) so far forth as human Providence (with submission to the Divine Pleasure) can foresee, may be reasonably prevented or obviated for theTime to come, both by the Matter and Form of such building.’ The act required ‘That all the Outsides of all Buildings in and about the said City be henceforth made of Brick or Stone, or of Brick and Stone together except door cases and window frames’. It created a design code, specifying that ‘there shall be only four sorts of building and no more’. As an example of the requirements, ‘the first and least Sort of Building, fronting By streets or Lanes as aforesaid, shall be of two Stories high, besides Cellars and Garrets; That the Cellars thereof be six Foot and a Half high, if the springs of water hinder not; that the first Story be nine Foot high from the Floor to the Ceiling, and the second Story nine Foot high from the Floor to the Ceiling; that all Walls in Front and Rear, as high as the first Story, be of the full Thickness of the Length of two Bricks, and thence upwards to the Garrets of the thickness of one Brick and an Half etc’. The act set out structural requirements for wall thickness in relation to building height, and dimensions of beams and bressummers (or ‘Brest Summers’) in relation to length. The act provided for the election of surveyors by the mayor and company to ‘prevent irregular Buildings’. A further act (Rebuilding of London Act 1670) added a requirement for gutters and downpipes. ‘And bee it enacted That the Water from the tops of all Houses already built since the late Fire, and hereafter to be built and fronting or that shall front upon any the Streets, Lanes or Passages within the said City and
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