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20
Public Mortuary and Coroner's Court
The premises are situated in Ladywell Road and comprise a court
room, witness room, coroner's office, caretaker's apartments and mortuary.

Rodent control
A section, consisting from May to September of a foreman and
three operatives and from October to April of the foreman and five
operatives, is maintained for the purpose of repressing rat infestation,
and this section is supervised by the senior public health inspector.
In his report on rodent control work during 1963, Mr. Phillips,
the senior public health inspector, states:—"The number of complaints
of rat infestation showed a slight decrease in 1962 and this has been
maintained during 1963 with a reduction from 1,122 to 961. This can
be attributed to the effect of the regular baiting of the sewers and
also to the improvement of the rivers where the number of base points
laid was lower than in 1962 both in the river Ravensbourne and the
river Quaggy. These rivers, however, still call for considerable attention
due to a very great extent to the scraps of food and rubbish which are
thrown into them. Most of the infestations were dealt with by the use of
warfarin in oatmeal but in some of the cases it was necessary to use
other bait.
Although the number of visits made to deal with infestations of rats
was less it was rather disturbing to note a further increase in mice
complaints. In dwelling houses these were 392 compared with 339
in 1962 and in shops the numbers were 76 compared with 52. The
figures for dwelling houses are disappointing in that after ensuring
that a number of houses in multi-occupation were provided with proper
food stores, this type of property was still the cause of many of the
complaints."