London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

View report page

Clerkenwell 1900

Report on the public health and sanitary condition of the Parish of Clerkenwell [West Division, Borough of Finsbury] for the year 1900

This page requires JavaScript

63
and the total population 511. The houses are for the most part
small, very old, very much worn out, and filthy and dirty, their
construction being such that no amount of repairs would be likely
to make them fit for human habitation. The courts are small and
narrow, the neighbouring buildings are high and interfere with the
ventilation and to a great degree exclude sunshine.
There are practically no facilities for through ventilation of
Aylesbury Place, Bishop's Court, or Jerusalem Court. The
inhabitants are very poor, and keep their rooms in a filthy condition
with the exception of Jerusalem Passage which is partly inhabited
by small tradesmen whose rooms are slightly better, and
Aylesbury Street, where most of the rooms are kept as clean as the
defective construction of the houses will permit.
The attention of the Vestry has been continually directed to the
area by its medical officers and sanitary inspectors. The average
annual mortality during the last 5 years has been 36.4, whereas the
annual mortality for the whole parish was only 21.55, and for the
County 20.5, showing a much increased mortality for the area.
The average annual infantile mortality (for children under 1 year)
was during the last 5 years for every 1,000 born = 447.36, for the
whole parish for every 1,000 born = 168.5, for the whole county
= 165.8.
The number of notifications of infectious diseases per 1,000 of
population for the area was 14.48 and for the parish was 11.26 for
the 5 years.
The mortality from zymotic diseases for 5 years for the area was
17.02, whilst for 5 years for the parish it was 17.66.

The density of population is thus represented :—

For the Area503.0 per acre.
„ Parish124.2 „
,, County58.9 „

The foregoing statistics, though dealing with comparatively
small numbers, show clearly that the area is far more unhealthy
than the parish generally and a danger to the locality.
Following these general statistics Dr. Evan Jones gave detailed
evidence for each house in the condemned area. No opposition
was raised in the cases of 71 out of the 73 houses. The owners of