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Notice for cleaning of common areas in tenements

 

Creator: NationalMuseumsScotland on 8 Apr 2011, 1 p.m.

Printed notice for cleaning common areas in tenements, Edinburgh, c. 1982.

It was common practice in the large cities in Scotland in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries for tenants to be responsible for keeping clean the common shared areas in tenements and flatted buildings. Each household took its turn on a rota system, to clean the close, the lobby areas, the stairs and the shared toilets.

Properties were inspected from time to time by representatives from the Environmental Health Department and if the common areas were not kept clean then the tenants would be subject to a fine.

©Scottish Life Archive, NMS

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