Chapter XXV: Section V: The Regulations with regard to the House for the reception (6)

Mr. George Pearse, the Registrar for the St. John the Evangelist
District, thus describes the condition of the places in the lower
districts, where the greatest mortality occurs:—“Great Peter-street,
Perkin’s rents, Duck-lane, and Old Pye-street, are the most densely
populated in the district. The houses in Great Peter-street, for the
most part, are very old, irregular, and uncleanly. Occupied by
tradesmen and small shopkeepers, together with labourers, mechanics,
and others of uncertain earnings. The houses in the other three
streets are often occupied by 10 or 12 persons in one room, most of
them of the lowest grade in society, such as mendicants, hawkers,
costermongers, lodging-house-keepers, thieves, and abandoned females
of irregular and intemperate habits. Their food chiefly consists of
salt-fish and other scraps, collected by the mendicants and disposed
of to the general dealers. The houses are, for the most part, very
low, filthy, and dilapidated, badly drained, and indifferently
supplied with water. There are other unwholesome nuisances arising
from the collecting and boiling bones, soap, and tallow, &c.
Holland-street, Medway-street, Marlborough-place. New Peter-street,
with several other avenues, surrounding an extensive waste (formerly
the site of Marlborough square) oftentimes nearly covered with
stagnant water. The houses are small, very dirty, and dilapidated, low
in situation, without any drainage, having stagnant waters back and
front; some in the occupation of the labouring class, and laundresses
low in the scale, irregular in their earnings and habits. Many cases
of typhoid fever have occurred here, and several recently.
Rochester-row, Strutton-ground, and Artillery-square, are thickly
populated by tradesmen of all kinds and others; they are without
sewerage or proper drainage; the first having an open ditch through
the centre for the greater part; and the occupiers of the latter are
under the necessity of pumping out into the open street (generally at
night) the offensive water that collects in the cesspools within their
dwellings. Part of Vauxhall-bridge road, which is contiguous to
Douglas-street, Bentinck-street and place, with sundry other small
streets or places communicating with them on the one side, and Upper
and Lower Garden-street, with Dean’s-place, on the other. The houses
are small and numerous; inhabited by labourers, laundresses,
costermongers, and others; without proper drainage, having open
ditches and stagnant waters in their vicinity. Typhus and scarlatina
have been frequent here, and several deaths therefrom have occurred
within the last few weeks. In Causton-street the houses are small,
populous, with courts or places occupied by labourers generally, and
an open ditch in front. Ship-court, with Cottage-place, is situated
very low; composed of small, ill-ventilated, dirty, dilapidated
houses; thickly inhabited by labourers and others of very low and
irregular earnings and habits; adjoining several large dilapidated
premises, with extensive wastes or yards used as pig and cow-yards, or
for the purpose of collecting slop-soil and other filth, left
evaporating in the open air, without sewerage or proper drainage.
Vine-street, with Champion’s-alley, York-buildings in Grub-street, on
one side, and Scott’s-rents on the other, for the most part are small
old houses, peopled by the labouring classes, with bad drainage, and
the wharfs in Millbank-street, for the deposit of slop-soil and other
nuisance.”

Footnote 59:

Mr. J. Verrall, the Registrar of the St. John’s District.—“The
following places appear to me to be unhealthy from the absence of all
habit of cleanliness in most of the inhabitants; the want of drainage;
the ruinous condition of the houses; the number of lay-stalls, in
which filth of all kinds is accumulated, and the number of pigs kept
in the neighbourhood,—King-street, Queen-street, Gold-street,
Ship-street, Hilliard’s court, and Pruson’s island. In the following
places (in addition to the foregoing) the houses appear unhealthily
crowded and very dirty, with inadequate means of ventilation, namely,
Church’s-gardens, New-court, Crown-place, Miner-court, Macord’s-rents,
Ellis-court, Petrie-court, Hampton-court, Rycroft’s-court, and
Matthew’s-court.”

Footnote 60:

Mr. George Lee, the Registrar of the St. Giles’ South District reports
generally, as to the condition of the worst parts of the district,
that they are characterized by insufficient drainage, indifferent
supply of water, cleanliness neglected.

Mr. John Yardley, Registrar of St. George, Bloomsbury District.—“They
are places without a thoroughfare to (two of them are built many feet
below the surface of the street adjoining), and surrounded with houses
of much greater height.”

Footnote 61:

Mr. W. Fitch, the Registrar of the St. Clement Danes’ District,
describes the houses of the lower classes as excessively crowded.—“The
number of persons sleeping in the same rooms are generally the whole
family, from two to six persons, and often more. I beg to observe,
that where persons occupy different rooms in one house they are
generally very particular in keeping the doors of their rooms closed
for the purpose of preventing others passing up and down stairs
overlooking their abode, thereby causing a very great check to
ventilation. Washing clothes, and placing them to dry in the rooms
during the night, is another inconvenience the wretchedly poor are
labouring under in many parts of my district, and this to a great
extent.”

Footnote 62:

Mr. C. Mears, Registrar of Waterloo-road, No. 1 District.—In what
parts of your district has the number of deaths registered in the
years 1838, 1839, 1840, 1841, and 1842 been the greatest in proportion
to the population?—“In the undermentioned parts:—Whitehorse-street,
Wootton-street, Windmill-street, Windmill-row, Little Windmill-street,
and courts, Isabella-place, Broadwall, Cornwall-road and place,
Cottage-place, Commercial road, Bond-place and Commercial-buildings,
Princes court, Eaton-street, Brad-street, Roupell-street, New-street,
Mitre-place, John-street, Salutation-place.” And state generally the
condition of those unhealthy streets, courts, and houses, as to
drainage, supplies of water, cleanliness.—“In the above places there
is very imperfect drainage; very few have any communication with the
sewers. The houses have cesspools, and the water runs to waste and
settles on the surface, leaving the lower parts of the houses damp.
Supplies of water tolerably good; cleanliness, indifferent.”

Mr. J. Green, Registrar of Waterloo-road, No. 2.—In what parts of your
district has the greatest number of deaths occurred from small-pox,
measles, scarlatina, hooping-cough, diarrhœa, dysentery, cholera,
influenza, or fever (typhus)?—“Juston-street, Hooper-street,
Whiting-street, Apollo-buildings, courts and streets adjacent,
Charles-street, Harriot-street, Frazier-street, Lucretia-street, James
street, Barnes-terrace, Granby-place and Granby-gardens, Burdett
street, Francis street.” And state generally the condition of those
unhealthy streets, courts, and houses, as to drainage, supplies of
water, cleanliness.—“In the above-named streets the drainage is very
imperfect, and much filthy water is thrown often into the streets. A
plentiful supply of water. Many pay but little attention to
cleanliness. Densely populated. In many houses from four to eight or
nine in one room.”

Footnote 63:

Mr. R. Bell, the Registrar of the Kent-road District:—In what parts or
your district has the number of deaths registered in the years 1838,
1839, 1840, 1841, and 1842 been the greatest in proportion to the
population?—“There are many close, filthy courts in this district; in
these, the deaths are uniformly the highest; and the local
registration does not correctly show this fact, for the people
inhabiting them are very poor, and in extreme illness are often
removed either to the workhouse or the hospitals, and they die in
those places.” And state generally the condition of those unhealthy
streets, courts, and houses as to drainage, supplies of water,
cleanliness.—“Drainage,—open gutters choked, and pits of stagnant
water. Supplies of water—good supply from water works. Cleanliness—as
a general rule they seldom attend to this, unless they expect a visit
from the medical or other officers: they excuse it by stating that
they have to work for their living. The people live very close in
small rooms; have often more than one bed in a room. Beds are made of
straw and shavings to sleep on, and a great number sleep on the floor;
from three to ten persons in a room; almost every room is a
sleeping-room.”

Mr. J. Bedwell, the Registrar of the Borough-road District;—In what
parts of your district has the number of deaths registered in the
years 1838, 1839, 1840, 1841, and 1842 been the greatest in proportion
to the population?—“My district, formerly nearly a square, bounded on
the west by about 50 houses in Blackfriars-road; on the south, by
about 70, in the Borough road; on the east, by about the same number
in Blackman-street, and partly on the north by Wellington-street; I
find the greatest number of deaths in proportion to the population in
the small streets within the above quadrangle. Drainage very
deficient; supply of water plentiful; cleanliness little attended to
by a great number. The density of population extreme. Small houses
with a family in each room. We have lodging-houses in the Mint where
from 50 to 150 sleep nightly; 10 large beds in one room in some of
them.”

Footnote 64:

Mr. J. Paul, the Registrar of St. James’s District.—In what parts of
your district has the greatest number of deaths occurred from
small-pox, measles, scarlatina, hooping-cough, diarrhœa, dysentery,
cholera, influenza, or fever (typhus)? And in what parts have epidemic
diseases been most fatal?—“I do not know. Neither small-pox,
scarlatina, measles, whooping-cough, diarrhœa, nor influenza has been
peculiarly localized. My experience of a longer date as surgeon to the
poor of the district leads me to believe that cholera, dysentery, and
typhus fever have been more prevalent in London-street and its
vicinity, and the Tar-yard. In both these places drainage is bad; and
the inhabitants of the former locality obtain their supply of water
from a running ditch—a common receptacle for everything, where a
hundred cloacina empty themselves. Drainage is bad in many parts of
the district; lots of small houses are built; streets of a better
description unfinished; their proprietors, who look only to the cash
returns, pay little attention to the drainage or cleanliness. There
appears to be no remedy for these calamities. The supply of water is
now pretty good.”

Footnote 65:

Mr. George Reynolds, the Registrar of the Church District, in answer
to the question, In what parts of your district has the number of
deaths registered in the years 1838, 1839, 1840, 1841, and 1842 been
the greatest in proportion to the population? states. “In
Beckford-row, Elliot-row, Alfred-place, Camden-gardens, Pitt-street,
Pott-street, Camden-street, Wolverley-street, New York-street, and
Ponderson-gardens.” And state generally the condition of those
unhealthy streets, courts, and houses, as to drainage, supplies of
water, cleanliness.—“The places I have named are entirely without
drainage. Supply of water, one hand-cock to many houses. Cleanliness,
great want of.” Name any particular streets or parts which, according
to the facts that have fallen under your notice, appear to you to be
healthy, and with reference to the points adverted to in the preceding
question, compare the healthy with the unhealthy portions of your
district.—“My entire district, I think, would be in a much more
healthy condition had we efficient drainage; instead of which, even
this, the main road of the parish, is without a sewer, notwithstanding
the Commissioners of Sewers have been repeatedly memorialized, and the
following fact brought under their notice, that the cellars of the
houses do not extend to the depth of 3 feet 6 inches below the level
of the carriage-road, and yet there is an average of 18 inches of
water during the greater part of the winter season, that many persons
are obliged to use the pump for many hours daily to preserve their
property.” He gives the following letter from a medical officer of
great experience:—

“289, Bethnal-green-road, October 31st, 1842.

“Dear Reynolds,—As you are aware, I have attended many of the
inhabitants of this road and its vicinity, and I do not hesitate
to say that many of their diseases are to be attributed entirely
to the want of drainage. They are—1st, febrile diseases; 2nd,
diseases of the respiratory organs; 3rd, nervous diseases; 4th,
diseases of the digestive organs; and lastly, cachectic diseases.
Of the first kind, the very numerous cases of fever in the
undrained districts that occur shortly after the autumnal rains, I
take in the light of cause and effect. Rheumatism (acute and
chronic) are the result of sleeping in houses the walls of which
absorb the surface water and elevate it by capillary attraction to
the height of two or three feet. The diseases of the respiratory
and digestive organs are above the average number, and are
attributable to the same cause. The nervous diseases I attribute
to the poisonous gases exhaled from putrifying matter. They
are—1st, epilepsy. In two families this disease attacked every one
of the younger branches of the family, and they were cured by
removal to another district. Many cases of spasm of a particular
muscle, as one or two of the muscles of the face, the large muscle
in front of the neck, and even some of the muscles of the arm;
also frequent cases of the most inveterate hysteria, have been
temporarily relieved by removal, and have returned again on their
return home. Of the cachectic diseases, some are produced, others
aggravated, by this cause. Scrofula is of this latter description.
The cases of the children in your own family show that it is
impossible to prevent suppuration when the patient is constantly
breathing a humid atmosphere. This has also been the case with one
of your immediate neighbours. That form of scrofula termed tabes
mesenterica, I think, is, in many cases, brought on entirely by
the same cause. Want of time prevents my extending the example of
diseases attributable to this cause.

“I am, dear Reynolds, yours truly, “T. TAYLOR.”

Mr. James Murray, the Registrar of the Hackney-road District, in
answer to the question, In what parts of your district, has the number
of deaths registered in the years 1838, 1839, 1840, 1841, and 1842
been the greatest, in proportion to the population? states, “The
greatest number of deaths registered, in proportion to the population,
have occurred in all the streets leading into Old Cock-lane,
especially the courts therein, and in all the streets leading into the
Hackney-road as far as Strout’s-place, viz., Old Nichol-street, New
Nichol-street, Half Nichol-street, Vincent-street, Mead-street,
Turville-street, and courts therein, Collingwood street, Old
Castle-street, Virginia-row, Austin-street, Gascoigne-place, and
Weatherhead, Nova Scotia, Green Gate, and Cooper’s-gardens, and
Wellington-row.” In what parts of your district has the greatest
number of deaths occurred from small-pox, measles, scarlatina,
hooping-cough, diarrhœa, dysentery, cholera, influenza, or fever
(typhus)?—“The greatest number of deaths from the diseases named have
occurred in precisely the same parts of my district, especially in the
courts and in those anomalous assemblages of small cabins built on low
and undrained ground, called gardens.” And in what parts have epidemic
diseases been most fatal?

“Epidemic diseases have been most fatal wherever the greatest number
of people are congregated on the smallest space, which is again the
identical spot mentioned above, with the exception of Wellington-row
and the gardens, where the deaths appear to be chiefly caused by their
low, damp, and almost swampy condition during winter. Pneumonia being
there the prevailing cause of death, with occasional instances of
putrid sore throat.” And state generally the condition of those
unhealthy streets, courts, and houses, as to drainage, supplies of
water, cleanliness.—“These streets and courts have generally an
imperfect drainage, suitable only to a former state. These drains are
very near the surface; and some of the houses are built over them, so
as to communicate a dampness prejudicial to health. The gardens herein
mentioned appear to be entirely without drainage. The supply of water
in the streets is generally good, but in the courts and in the gardens
is derived from a main, to the cock of which the inhabitants have
common access while the water is on, and have to fetch it in pails to
their houses, which mode of supply I consider to be insufficient for
health or cleanliness. The population is very dense, in some cases
amounting to nearly 30 persons in a single house. As an average, an
enumeration district may be taken, 57 houses, 580 persons. On taking
in a larger district, 30,000 people congregated on a spot about half a
mile square. The houses are universally let out in rooms, a custom
apparently introduced by the French refugees; the houses built by whom
are all on the Edinburgh Old Town or French fashion, with large rooms
on each floor, intended for a family, with a common staircase. A
single room now generally contains a family, with tools of trade, bed,
and kitchen, which, coupled with uncleanly habits, occasions a
constant effluvium, very oppressive, and, I doubt not, unhealthy. In
the larger houses, the lowest grade live in damp under-ground
kitchens.”

Footnote 66:

The Average for the previous six Years was £405.

Footnote 67:

Increase of 1840, from two tablets.

Footnote 68:

Extra-Parochial.

Footnote 69:

Private.

Footnote 70:

Collegiate.

Footnote 71:

Private.

Footnote 72:

Private.

LONDON:
Printed by WILLIAM CLOWES and SONS, Stamford-street.
For Her Majesty’s Stationery Office.

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TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES

1. Changed ‘of great part’ to ‘of a great part’ on p. 235. 2. Silently corrected typographical errors. 3. Retained anachronistic and non-standard spellings as printed. 4. Enclosed italics font in _underscores_. 5. Enclosed bold font in =equals=.