London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Islington 1900
Forty-fifth annual report on the health and sanitary condition of the Borough of Islington
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148
1900]
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| Sanitary Improvements— | |
| Ventilation to rooms provided | 74 |
| Rooms cleansed and limewashed | 437 |
| Yards, floors and roofs repaired | 123 |
| W.C.'s reconstructed or provided | 99 |
| W.C.'s provided with water | 119 |
| Water Cisterns repaired, cleansed or provided with covers | 19 |
| Drains trapped or ventilated | 166 |
| W.C.'s provided with separate water supply | 119 |
| Water Cisterns cleansed and covered | 19 |
| Dust Bins repaired and supplied | 15 |
| Overcrowding abated | 22 |
These are some of the improvements that have been carried out, and which
must have a most healthy effect on the lives of the workers. The most noticeable
feature has been the large number of w.c.'s which have been provided in various
workplaces, amounting to 92, a figure which brings the total number erected
during five years to 241.
Some little difficulty has been experienced in obtaining separate w.c.'s for the
male and female workers, but when it has been pointed out to the proprietors that
under Section 38 of the Public Health (London) Act, 1891, "Every factory, workshop,
and workplace, whether erected before or after the passing of this Act shall
be provided with sufficient and suitable accommodation in the way of sanitary
conveniences with proper separate accommodation for persons of
each sex," it was speedily removed, and the requirements of the Act were
acceded to.
MISS GRAY'S REPORT.
The Town Hall,
Upper Street, N.
To A. E. Harris, Esq., 4th February, 1901.
Medical Officer of Health.
Sir,
I have the honour of presenting for your consideration a report of my work for the year
1900.
Register.—At the end of the year there were on the register 1,011 workshops, workshop laundries
and workplaces, containing 1,643 workrooms. At the beginning of the year the registered workshops,
&c., numbered 1,058, with 1,664 workrooms. The total has thus been reduced by 47, although 74
workshops and 92 laundries have been added to the register during the year. This reduction is
partly due to the dulness of trade—which has been much felt by the manufacturers, and has caused
many of the smaller workshops to be closed—and partly to the alteration in the boundaries of
Islington. On the readjustment of the boundaries in November, the addresses of 21 workshops, &c.,
were forwarded to the neighbouring boroughs, into which they passed. From these boroughs the
addresses of 17 workshops were received, in six of which I found women at work. Up to the end
of December I had discovered nine other such workshops in the new streets.