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
London County Council 1893
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for London County Council]
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London County Council.
Public Health Department,
Spring Gardens, S.W ,
23rd December, 1893.
Report of the Medical Officer on the Sanitary Condition and Administration of the
District of St. Saviour, Southwark.
(Printed by order of the Public Health and Housing Committee.)
The Mansion House Council on the Dwellings of the Poor having asked the Local Government
Board to cause an enquiry to be made into the sanitary condition of the parishes of St. Saviour and
Christchurch, Southwark, the Local Government Board suggested that the Mansion House Council should
submit to the London County Council the particulars of cases in which they considered the St. Saviour's
District Board had made default. The Mansion House Council thereupon on the 30th of March, 1892,
communicated to the London County Council the particulars of certain cases in which in the opinion of
the Mansion House Council the District Board had made default and asked the London County Council
to exercise the powers vested in it by sections 100 and 101 of the Public Health (London) Act, 1891,
and I was instructed to report on the sanitary condition and administration of the district.
Speaking first of the actual matters of complaint, the Mansion House Council had communicated
to the District Board two lists of premises which were regarded as faulty in one or another particular.
These lists were accompanied by the following summaries of defects—
| Number of houses inspected | 224 |
| Unpaved or badly paved yards | 74 |
| Untrapped or defective yard gulleys | 9 |
| Untrapped or defective sink gulleys | 5 |
| No water supply to waterclosets | 10 |
| Defective apparatus to waterclosets | 32 |
| No dustbins | 49 |
| Defective dustbins | 47 |
| Water closets supplied from drinking-water cisterns | 25 |
| Watercloset pans foul and broken | 16 |
| Dilapidations—broken floors, damp walls, defective roofs, &c. | 94 |
| Defective or uncovered cisterns | 8 |
| Defective water fittings | 7 |
| Defective gutters | 11 |
| Defective stackpipes | 22 |
| Structural defects | 21 |
| Total defects | 430 |
| Number of houses inspected | 337 |
| Unpaved or badly paved yards | 74 |
| Undrained areas | 37 |
| Untrapped or defective yard gulleys | 5 |
| Untrapped or defective sink gulleys | 5 |
| No water supply to waterclosets | 7 |
| Defective apparatus to waterclosets | 46 |
| Waterclosets supplied from drinking-water cisterns | 6 |
| Watercloset pans foul and broken | 33 |
| Waterclosets placed in cellars and under stairs, dark and unventilated | 37 |
| No dustbins | 34 |
| Defective dustbins | 31 |
| Defective or uncovered cisterns | 1 |
| Defective water fittings | 28 |
| Defective gutters | 9 |
| Defective stackpipes | 4 |
| Structural defects, e.g., floors below level of streets, houses built back to back, no through ventilation | 109 |
| Dilapidations, e.g., broken floors, damp walls and defective roofs | 130 |
| Illegally occupied basements | 3 |
| Total defects | 599 |
Of the 561 houses to which the attention of the District Board had been directed, I inspected 226
with the following results, and subsequently inspected the district generally.
In more than one-half of the houses on the lists of the Mansion House Council the defects
had been remedied at the time of my inspection, and in the remaining houses notices had in almost
every case been served, and in many instances the houses had been closed or works were in progress.
[9596—1717