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

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Bethnal Green 1855

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Bethnal Green, Parish of St. Matthew ]

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16
Manufacturing Establishments.
The manufacturing establishments (unless each weaver's
household be so considered) are neither numerous nor extensive.
The Lead Works in Holly Bush Gardens, Palmer's
Candle Factory in Twig Folly, and the Manure Factories in
Digby Street, which are also Night Soil Yards, are the most
prejudicial. In the Candle Factory, Mr. Welch states, that
great care is taken to protect the workmen, chemically, from
the arsenical matters employed.
House accommodation of the Poorer Classes.
The House accommodation of the poorer classes is often
faulty and deficient. Frequently there is neither cellar nor
yard, no storage room, and not enough water to keep the
dwellings clean. To that want of water (that great essential
to health) I earnestly invoke your special regard. Another
evil is, that in certain cul-de-sac houses, as in Providence
Place, the privies belonging to the houses behind abut on
the walls, and infiltrate ordure under the floors. Thus
"unhealthy and unhappy homes induce thousands to seek
escape fron miserable depression in the temporary excitement
of intoxicating liquors." If we will apply it, the remedy is
—to institute Model Lodgings, Baths, and Washhouses.
The pecuniary and moral gain will be great:—there
will be less orphanage, less widowhood, more useful, more
productive labour. Sensible of the paucity of healthy houseroom,
I respectfully suggest to you whether it would not be
of advantage to convert some of the larger houses into Renovated
Model Dwellings, or to build some small groups after
the plans of Prince Albert—out of our rates ? The experiment
is neither uncertain nor new; it has been put to the test by
Baths and Wash-houses, in St. Martin-in-the-Fields, and has
realized 5 per cent. of returns. And, as regards the health
question, when, in 1852, the mortality of all London was 22