  One of the most important duties devolving upon a “town surveyor” is that of exercising control over any new streets that may be constructed, or any new buildings that may be erected, within the limits of his jurisdiction. This duty is imposed on him by the following clause of the Public Health Act 1875: “Every urban authority may make byelaws with respect to the following matters; (that is to say,) “(1.) With respect to the level, width and construction of new streets, and the provisions for the sewerage thereof; “(2.) With respect to the structure of walls, foundations, roofs, and chimneys of new buildings, for securing stability and the prevention of fires, and for purposes of health; “(3.) With respect to the sufficiency of the space about buildings to secure a free circulation of air, and with respect to the ventilation of buildings; “(4.) With respect to the drainage of buildings, to waterclosets, earth closets, privies, ashpits, and cesspools, in connexion with buildings, and to the closing of buildings or parts of buildings unfit for human habitation, and to prohibition of their use for such habitation; “And they may further provide for the observance of such byelaws by enacting therein such provisions as they think necessary as to the giving of notices; as to the deposit of plans and sections by persons intending to lay out streets or to construct buildings; as to inspection by the urban authority, and as to the power of such authority (subject to the provisions of this Act) to remove, alter, or pull down any work “The provisions of this section, and of the two last preceding sections, shall not apply to buildings belonging to any railway company, and used for the purposes of such railway under any Act of Parliament” (38 & 39 Vic. c. 55, s. 157). The result of this power having been so given to urban authorities, is that they have all framed sets of byelaws, which having received the sanction of the Local Government Board, are now law in the several districts. In the year 1877, it being found that considerable variation existed in the requirements set forth in the byelaws, according to the districts from which they emanated, and experience having shown that the forms of byelaws previously issued by the Local Government Board were inadequate, the Local Government Board in order to assist urban authorities issued a series of model byelaws; amongst the series being a set of byelaws regulating the manner in which new streets should be constructed and buildings erected. These model byelaws are too extensive to give in detail, as they contain 99 clauses, but every town surveyor should at once procure a copy, even if his corporation have not adopted them, nor intend to do so. One of the first difficulties that often presents itself to In many cases, of course, there can be no doubt where bare land is being built upon, but often after buildings have been partially destroyed by fire, or where extensive alterations are being carried out, some considerable elements of uncertainty as to what is a “new building” are introduced. The law attempts to settle the question as follows: “For the purposes of this Act, the re-erecting of any building pulled down to, or below the ground floor, or of any frame-building of which only the frame-work is left down to the ground floor, or the conversion into a dwelling house of any building not originally constructed for human habitation, or the conversion into more than one dwelling house of a building originally constructed as one dwelling house only, shall be considered the erection of a new building” (38 & 39 Vic. c. 55, s. 159). But the difficulty at once presents itself as to what is meant by the words “ground floor.” Does this mean the actual floor level, or the cubical space contained by the walls, floor and ceiling of the “ground floor” (or as it is sometimes called “ground story”) of the building? The latter may be assumed to be the correct interpretation, for if we order a man to hang a picture, or to fix a chandelier on the “ground floor,” we certainly do not expect to find them placed upon the floor. It is important that this point should be settled definitely, or some more explanatory term employed in the Act in order to determine what is a new building, for in the present state of uncertainty it may be urged that the whole building must be razed to the ground, whereas if the proper meaning of “ground floor” is taken, would the removal of the superstructure This uncertainty is now taken advantage of by builders and others, who sometimes find it irksome and inconvenient to be obliged to construct a building in accordance with the byelaws of any town. Somewhat sharp practices are consequently resorted to in order to evade the law, and old buildings are converted into new ones without any powers of interference by the urban authority or their surveyor. This is greatly to be regretted, as unless the building comes within the operation of the byelaws, it is frequently erected without any sanitary precautions or even stability. Sometimes a so-called repair of a building is commenced by adding a new roof perhaps, at a higher level than the old one; when sufficient time has elapsed to allay suspicion, a new front is erected, and then new back and side walls in due course, the alteration of the interior floors not attracting much attention. Cases of this description are very troublesome to the town surveyor, as if legal proceedings are to be taken against the offender, it is necessary for the surveyor to make surveys and drawings of the works as they are in progress in order to prove his case, and these might extend over a considerable period of time. It must also not be forgotten that what may sometimes appear to be an entirely new building, may only be an addition to one that existed before the passing of the Act, and although the new work may be ten times as large as the old, still much conflicting evidence may be brought to bear before it can be proved to be a “new building” within the meaning of the Act. Turning again to section 159 of the Public Health Act 1875, these words will be found as defining also what is a new building: “or the conversion into a dwelling house of any building not originally constructed for human habitation.” It would have been better in the interests of sanitation if the Act had prohibited the conversion of any building at all into a dwelling house without the approval of the urban authority, for as the law stands at present, it is open for an owner of property to convert stables or warehouses, &c., into dwelling houses, by simply asserting and bringing witnesses or other evidence to prove that they were “originally constructed for human habitation” irrespective of whether they are adapted for the purpose or not, thus defeating the intention of the Public Health Act to secure a better description of dwellings than those that were erected before the passing of the Act. When a dispute does arise with anyone as to whether a building comes within the definition of “new” or not, it is well if possible to agree upon certain points of fact and upon plans, &c., before the case comes into court, and then to endeavour to get the magistrates to “view.” This course if pursued often saves lengthy litigation, and a great waste of time and money. With reference to the deposit of plans of new streets or buildings, the following clause of the Public Health Act 1875 provides that this shall be done: “Where a notice, plan or description of any work is The result of these clauses of the Act with reference to new streets and buildings is, that some of the most arduous and irksome duties of the town surveyor are embodied in the few words they contain. These duties consist of, first, the careful examination of, and report upon all plans of new streets and buildings; secondly, the constant supervision of these streets and buildings whilst the works are in progress; and each of these duties will be considered in the course of this chapter. First then, as to the deposit and examination of the plans of new streets or buildings. The byelaws of which I have already made mention should contain some such clause as the following: “Every person who shall intend to make or lay out any new street, whether the same shall be intended to be used as a public way or not, shall give notice to the urban authority of such intention, by writing delivered to them at their office, or at the office of their surveyor, and shall at the same time leave or cause to be left at the office of the urban authority, or of their surveyor, a plan and section of such intended new street, drawn to a scale of not less than 1 inch to every 44 feet, and shall show on every such plan the names of the owners of the land through or over which such street shall be “Such person shall show on every such section the level of the present surface of the ground above some known fixed datum, the level and rate or rates of inclination of the intended new street, the level and inclination of the streets with which it will be connected, and the level of the lowest floors of the intended new buildings. “Every person who shall intend to erect any new building shall give notice to the urban authority of such intention by writing delivered to them at their office or at the office of their surveyor, and shall at the same time leave or cause to be left at the said office detail plans and sections of every floor of such intended new building, drawn to a scale of not less than 1 inch to every 8 feet, showing the position, form and dimensions of the several parts of such building, and of the watercloset, earth closet, privy, cesspool, ashpit, well, and all other appurtenances; and together with such plans and sections he shall leave or cause to be left at the office of the urban authority, or of their surveyor, a description of the materials of which the building is proposed to be constructed, of the intended mode of drainage, and means of water supply. “Such person shall at the same time leave or cause to be left at the office of the urban authority, or of their surveyor, a block plan drawn to a scale of not less than 1 inch to every 44 feet, and shall show the position of the buildings and appurtenances of the properties immediately adjoining, the “Such person shall likewise show on such plan the intended lines of drainage of such building, and the intended size, depth and inclination of each drain; and the details of the arrangement proposed to be adopted for the ventilation of the drains.” With reference to the deposit of plans as required by the above byelaw, the following suggestions as to the best manner of effecting this may be of some use: (1.) The town surveyor should see that the person, or his agent, intending to carry out the work, deposits tracings of the proposed street or building signed by himself, so that there should be no after dispute as to what really has been deposited; these tracings should be on good paper properly inked in and coloured so as to be indelible. In some towns it is the practice for original plans to be deposited temporarily with the surveyor, who is expected to have them traced and then returned to the owner, but this not only tends to the possibility of dispute as to the correctness of the tracings, but it also takes up a large amount of the surveyor’s time, or of such other officer as may have charge of this branch of the duties. In order to insure that the plans deposited shall not be afterwards claimed by the person making the deposit, it might be well to add these words to the clause of the byelaws which I have quoted: “All such plans and sections so left at the office of the urban authority or of their surveyor, shall remain the property of the urban authority.” (2.) It is advisable for the town surveyor to have in his possession a number of printed forms on which application should be made by the person intending to erect a new building and filled in and signed by him or his duly authorised agent. The following is given as a specimen form for this purpose: To the Surveyor of the Urban Authority of I hereby give you notice that it is my intention to erect certain buildings in street, and that the following particulars relate thereto:
And I herewith leave detail plans and sections of every Dated this day of 18 Signature in full, A similar form may be prepared relating to plans of proposed new streets, but of course the number of the questions contained in it will be less. (3.) When the necessary notices have been given and the tracings properly deposited with the surveyor, he should carefully examine them to see if they are in accordance with the byelaws which are in force in his district. They should then be folded and placed in a large envelope, which should be endorsed with the name of the person proposing to carry out the work, the description of the work proposed, the name of the architect, if any, the name of the builder, if any, the date of the deposit, and a blank left for the date of approval. Each envelope should also have a large number stamped upon it. (4.) These particulars should be entered in a book of reference against a corresponding number, so that at any future date it may be easy to find and refer to any plans that have been deposited by means of an index and the number on the envelope. (5.) If on examining the plans the surveyor finds anything (6.) If the plans are redeposited unaltered or showing still some non-compliance with the byelaws, the surveyor must lay them before his committee and explain in what respects they are defective, leaving it to the committee to decide whether they shall be approved or not. (7.) If the plans are in accordance with the byelaws, the surveyor reports the fact to the committee, whereupon the plans should be at once signed by the chairman of the committee. (8.) All plans which the committee decline to approve of should be at once returned to the person who deposited them with a written notification of the reasons. (9.) Plans which are approved of by the committee and afterwards ratified by the general meeting of the urban authority, should be carefully put away in pigeon-holes, so that by means of the reference book previously described they can be easily found at any future time. This is very important, as no extension of a building the plans of which have been thus approved by the urban authority can ever afterwards be carried out without their consent; and the plans of any alteration which would not involve building upon an increased area must be deposited as in the case of a new building. (10.) A notification in writing should be sent to the person who has deposited the plans when they have been approved by the urban authority; and in sending this notification it is well to draw his attention to the fact that notice must be given to the surveyor of the commencement of the work, in order that The importance and necessity for the deposit of plans with a sanitary authority cannot be over-estimated, but this deposit is of but little practical good unless it can be insured that all the buildings are erected strictly in conformity with these plans, and this, according to the Act, is the duty also of the town surveyor. As a matter of fact, it is quite impossible for any single person in any large town to perform this duty, and a staff of assistants is consequently necessary if the sanitary authority really wish their byelaws to be enforced. Anyone who is practically acquainted with the difficulties that even architects experience in superintending buildings they have themselves designed, and how much they have to trust to the clerk of works (of which there is generally one to every building), will readily see what an absurdity it is to suppose that a town surveyor, with his multitude of other duties and attendances at committees and meetings, can even pretend to see that the 99 detail clauses of such byelaws as those emanating from the Local Government Board Office, or even those of a less stringent character, can possibly be enforced, especially when it is remembered that many of the buildings he has to inspect have no superintending architect, but are being erected for purposes of speculation by what are commonly known as jerry builders. Laws may be passed, books on sanitary questions may be written, but until a change is made in the machinery and manner of the inspection of buildings in the course of erection, and a large staff of inspectors or sanitary police or some such officials are kept by a sanitary authority, very little real advancement will be made with the poorer classes of buildings. It must in fairness to the builder be stated that to erect houses in strict accordance with the model byelaws would probably mean loss of money to him, as they could not Another cause of expense to builders is the necessity imposed on them to provide a comparatively large open space at the back or sides of new dwelling-houses, thus sacrificing land, and sometimes making it almost impossible to build at all. This necessity for open gardens or yards at the back of even small labourers’ dwellings is in some towns pushed to an extreme. If such houses are erected in a thoroughly sanitary manner in all points of detail, it is questionable if this open space is really beneficial. My experience has shown me that the space is often misused, animals, such as rabbits, chickens, pigeons, &c., being kept there, or it is made into a so-called garden, really a refuse heap which is a receptacle for all the garbage and filth of the house, soon becoming a fruitful source The model byelaws with regard to new streets and buildings issued by the Local Government Board contain most admirable clauses—valuable suggestions which should receive attention from any town surveyor who has to advise his corporation upon the subject of framing a set of byelaws for his district—but they necessarily contain many clauses which are not suitable equally well for towns in the north, south, east, and west of England. Many of the clauses are too stringent to be enforced, but this arises not from any fault in the byelaws themselves, but rather from the machinery employed in carrying them into effect. To secure all that they require adequate inspection is needed, and this might be effected if there was a fee charged by the urban authority of any town for the purposes of proper inspection of buildings in course of construction; and although it must be admitted that any provision which increases the cost of construction of small dwelling-houses which shall be |
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