PREFACE. ALTHOUGH the short title of the London Building Act, 1894, does not indicate that the Act relates to matters other than the construction of buildings, it is an Act to consolidate and amend the enactments relating to streets and buildings in London,' and enactments relating to streets and buildings contained in no less than thirteen statutes are repealed by it. The provisions of some of these repealed enactments are reenacted; while the provisions of others appear in an amended form, together with the provisions which experience in administering the previous Acts has shown to be necessary, or which are considered to be in accordance with modern requirements. But, though the Act purports to consolidate the enactments relating to streets and buildings in London, it fails to collect all the statutory provisions which relate to these matters; and the authors of the present work, considering that no work dealing solely with the London Building Act, 1894, could be a complete guide to the law relating to streets and buildings in the Metropolis, determined to delay the publication of their work in order to render it complete by the inclusion of the whole of the statute law relating in any way to the formation and construction of streets and the erection and construction of buildings and structures within the Metropolis. Accordingly in the main portion of the present work will be found the London Building Act, 1894, with notes in which endeavour has been made to collect all decisions upon corresponding enactments, and such other decisions as it is hoped will assist in the elucidation of the Act. In noting the various sections care has been taken wherever possible to refer to all other provisions in the Act dealing with, or relating to, the same subject-matter; and the authors have also in some cases ventured to express their views as to the construction to be placed upon the particular enactment. In the first and second appendices, the latter of which relates only to the City, have been placed the various enactments relating in any way to the subject-matter of the work, and these enactments have been treated, though perhaps less fully, in the same way as the Act of 1894. The third appendix has been divided into three parts, the first containing such of the standing orders of the London County Council as relate to matters dealt with in the work; the second part containing all the byelaws and regulations of the Council relating to streets and buildings, including byelaws as to overhead wires, byelaws under the Public Health (London) Act, 1891, regulations of the Council as to applications for its sanction and consent in those cases in which its sanction and consent is rendered necessary by the Act of 1894, and the regulations made by the Tribunal of Appeal determining the procedure &c. to be adopted, and the fees to be paid, in appeals to it. In the third part of the appendix will be found the regulations and standing orders of the Commissioners of Sewers relating to streets and buildings in the City. The fourth appendix contains the forms in use by district surveyors under the Act of 1894 and under the byelaws continued in force by that Act, together with such of the Instructional Letters issued by the Metropolitan Board of Works to district surveyors as it is thought may prove of assistance in the administration of the existing enactments, and the Instructional Letter of the London County Council which accompanied the copies of the Act of 1894 distributed by the Council amongst district surveyors. The authors are much indebted to Mr. ALFRED CONDEr, F.R.I.B.A., F.S.I., the District Surveyor for Woolwich, for the series of diagrams which will be found in the fifth appendix. The intention with which these diagrams have been inserted is to illustrate wherever it is possible so to do the provisions or requirements of the Act of 1894; and Mr. CONDER has made his diagrams so clear and explanatory that it is hoped they will be found useful by architects and surveyors as well as by all others who may have occasion to refer to the work. The authors have also received much assistance from the officials of the London County Council and of the Commissioners of Sewers, for which they desire to offer their thanks. In the last appendix is a list of the district surveyors, showing their districts and offices at the date of publication, and also the rules regulating the professional practice and charges of architects sanctioned by the Royal Institute of British Architects and confirmed at a general conference of the architects of the United Kingdom, permission to publish these rules having been granted to the authors by the Council of the Institute. The notes have been written not only with a view to making the work useful in practice to lawyers, architects, surveyors, and builders, but also with a view to its being of assistance to candidates for examination by the Surveyors' Institution. The work concludes with an exhaustive index, and after the table of contents will be found a table of those provisions of the repealed Acts to which any of the provisions of the Act of 1894 correspond, which latter table should prove useful to those who were acquainted with the provisions of the previous Acts. |