18 C O N T E X T 1 7 2 : J U N E 2 0 2 2 The Public Health Act 1875 The Public Health Act 1875 (which applied to England) and the Model Byelaws issued by the Local Government Board in 1877 were the most significant of the legislative developments, providing a comprehensive set of minimum requirements for fire protection, structural stability, drainage, prevention of damp, and ventilation. The act gave urban (but not rural) authorities powers (but not a duty) to make byelaws. The Local Government Board published model byelaws to assist the process, and at least two publishers provided guides, including case law. They set minimum width of streets intended as carriage streets (36 ft). Minimum separation between buildings (24 ft at front). Minimum rear open space 150 sq ft, and 10, 15, 20 or 25 ft in depth according to the height of the house. This was to secure a free circulation of air. Internal ventilation and light: each room to have at least one window, minimum window area 1⁄10th of the floor area, half of this area to be openable. Minimum ceiling heights (7 ft). Restrictions on use of basements for dwelling rooms. Structural soundness and fire protection measures continued with specifications for foundations and wall thickness proportioned to the height of the wall, and restrictions on how wood was used in buildings. There were the usual requirement for non-combustible materials for walls and roofs: to be externally covered with slates, tiles, metal or other incombustible materials.Where a building was within 15 ft of another, the parapet was required to be taken 1 ft at least above the point at which the roof joined the wall. Requirements were given for dampcourses, and for cavity walls, including maximum width of cavity, minimum total width of wall, and the use of wall ties. Buildings over 80 ft required permission. There were other restrictions: the builder shall not construct any wall so that any part of it ‘shall overhang any part beneath it’. This was a block on jettying. The act also covered the conduct of local authority business, requiring every urban authority to appoint fit and proper persons to be medical officer of health, surveyor, inspector of nuisances, clerk, and treasurer. In 1870, Sheffield, in an attempt to frustrate building control, had employed a surveyor who could neither read nor write. Campaigns were mounted against the byelaws. The Byelaw Reform Association was formed to overturn them. Articles appeared in the Spectator, and the 1901 volume of Country Life ran a series of features, from a rural perspective, covering materials, overcrowding, the cottagers’ perspective, windows and the height of ceilings. One author complained that the byelaws permitted ‘no freedom, either in design or in the choice of materials’. This was untrue: the requirement was simply for non-combustible materials and certain minimum dimensions. The byelaws were in conflict with some traditional building methods, such as traditional timber-framing, wattle and daub, weatherboard and thatch, and jetties. To emphasise the point, the Country Life articles offered photographs of Ellen Terry’s house at Smallhythe in Kent, other traditional buildings in Surrey, and a low-slung Cornish cottage built of boulders, all of which would have been contrary to the byelaws. The arts-and-crafts architecture movement was at its height at the time. Were speculative builders clamouring to cover England with neo-medieval hall houses? The answer is no. And while suburban-style, red-brick houses were appearing in rural areas and on the edge of market towns, it was not the fault of the byelaws, but simply the consequence of cheap transport, the wide availability of building materials, and a construction industry going about its normal business. Another author in Country Life railed: ‘it can not be too strongly and definitely stated that the overcrowding in the great towns, concerning which there are not two opinions, is largely due Top: A cross-section from Knights Annotated Model Byelaws of 1897, illustrating the requirement for parapets to be raised above the eaves where buildings over 30 feet in height are less than 15 feet distant from each other (to prevent the spread of fire). Bottom: This diagram from Knight’s Annotated Model Byelaws illustrates an alteration to enable half-timbered construction, subject to the framing being backed by brickwork at least four-and-ahalf inches thick to reduce to a minimum the danger of fire.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjgyMjA=