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

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London County Council 1897

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for London County Council]

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7
The kitchen is a large basement room, and on the floor above is another room used as a dayroom
for the lodgers. There are four water-closets in the yard, in which are also situated six fixed
basins with cold water laid on under a roof.
The bedsteads are iron with flock beds and straw mattresses.
The summer is the most busy time owing to the greater opportunity of finding employment in
Covent-garden-market, where the women shell peas, &c. About three-quarters of the inmates are
" regulars." Children are not received into the house with or without parents.

Islington.— There are six registered common lodging-houses in the district receiving women The following statement shows the number for which accommodation is provided and the charges—

Common lodging-house.Single women.Single men.Doubles.
1• • •13 8d.
296d.69 4d.14 6d.
366d.
4104d.15 8d.
5126d.2 1s.
6156d. and 8d.

The first is an ordinary house of three storeys in height. The second consists of three houses
three storeys in height and having back additions two storeys in height; one of these three houses
is used for single women and doubles, the next for single men, and the third for single men and also
for three single women. The third is a house of four storeys, let as furnished rooms at a weekly
charge of 5s. per room, and having one room registered for six single women. The fourth consists of
four houses, part of two of these houses is occupied by single men, the other two by doubles and
single women. The fifth consists of two houses let in great part as furnished lodgings at 5s. per
week each, but having three rooms occupied by 12 single women and one room occupied by two
doubles. The sixth is an ordinary house of three storeys registered for 15 single women.
The inmates were described as hawkers, laundresses, and charwomen, and in one house it was
said that women of the unfortunate class were not received. A considerable proportion were said to be
regulars. Children without parents are not received. The houses generally are fullest in winter.
The keeper of the first house has four houses in the same street let as furnished lodgings, a
weekly charge of 4s. or 5s. being made for each room. The keeper of the second house has five houses
in the same street which he lets as furnished lodgings at weekly rentals of 4s. 6d., 5s., and 6s. The
keeper of the fourth house has two houses let in a similar manner at weekly rents per room of 4s.,
4s. 6d. and 5s. per room.
In the first house the rooms are divided into cubicles by wooden partitions, two or three double
beds being situated in each room. In the second, which consists of three houses, the first of these is
wholly devoted to single women and doubles, the whole of the second house is devoted to single
men, and the whole of the third house to single men, except two rooms, one of which on the ground
floor is occupied by single women, the other in the first floor of the back addition by one double. The
fourth, consisting of four houses, has two used only for single men, but the backyards are thrown into
those of the next two houses used for single women and doubles. The fifth, consisting of two houses,
is mostly let as furnished lodgings, but one of these houses also contains single women and doubles,
and the other single women.
Kitchens.—In the first the kitchen, which is on the ground floor, is used by the doubles. In the
second a kitchen has been built at the back of the yard for the doubles and single women, a kitchen
for the single men having been built over the backyard of the middle of the three houses. The third
is, as already stated, let mostly as furnished lodgings, the six single women, received into the room
which is registered, having the right to use the kitchen. The fourth, which contains (a) single men
(b) single women and doubles, has separate kitchens for the two, but the two kitchens communicate
with each other. The fifth, which consists of two houses mostly let out as furnished lodgings, has a
kitchen in one of these houses for the doubles and single women. The sixth house has a kitchen on
the ground floor for the inmates.
Water-closets.—The water-closets in all these houses are situated in the backyards. Separate
provision is made for the women and for the men in the second and fourth houses.
The washhouse provision is as follows—In the first house the back addition is fitted with three
fixed basins with cold water laid on for the two sexes. In the second two washhouses have been provided.
Each consists of a roof beneath which are three fixed basins with hot and cold water laid on,
and has a copper. In the fourth a washhouse opening out of the kitchen having four fixed basins
with cold water laid on, provides for the women, and similar provision is made in a back addition for
the men ; each washhouse has wash-tubs. The washhouse in the fifth is on the ground floor of the
back addition. It has three fixed basins with cold water laid on, and a copper, and is used by both
sexes. In the sixth wash-hand basins are situated in the dormitory and a copper in the back addition.
In these houses the bedsteads are of iron, the beds flock, and the mattresses shavings or straw,
except in the sixth house, where better bedding and wire-wove mattresses are supplied for the higher
charge.
St. Luke.—There is one common lodging-house in this district receiving women. It is an old
house four storeys in height, having kitchens on the ground floor, the upper rooms being used for
15 single women at a charge of 6d. per night, and 12 doubles at a charge of 1s. per night. Some of
the women in the doubles were said to work in the markets, and do odd jobs. The house is fuller
in winter than in summer. Children are occasionally received. In the yard are two water-closets and an
enclosed and roofed washhouse containing four fixed basins with cold water laid on, and a wash-tub.
The bedsteads are iron, with shaving or straw mattresses and flock beds.