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135, Bethnal Green Road,
April 21st., 1856.
"As the Wolf has been extirpated from our forests, so may
Pestilence be driven away from our towns."
Gentlemen,
In accordance with my duties as your first
Officer of Health, I have the honour to present to you, a
Report on the Parish of Bethnal Green. I have framed it
throughout on the subjoined Instructions* of the General
Board of Health, and in the order suggested therein.
Natural Features.
Bethnal Green has, naturally a gravelly soil, and a mean
elevation of 38 feet above the high water mark of the Thames.
It, therefore, stands high, on the Seventh of the Fourteen
Terraces, into which the elevation of London has been divided
by Dr. Farr. Some of its ground was, originally, swampy
and covered with ponds. Such was "the former geography"
* "The duties of the Officer of Health will be to the following effect:—
"He will make himself familiar with the natural and acquired features of the place,
with the social and previous sanitary state of its population, and with all its existing
provisions for health—namely, with the levels, inclinations, soil, wells, and watersprings
of the district; with its meteorological peculiarities; with the distribution of
its buildings and open spaces, paved or unpaved; of its burial-grounds and lay-stalls:
with a plan of its drains, sewers, and water supply; with the nature of its manufacturing
and other industrial establishments; with the house accommodation of
the poorer classes, and their opportunities for bathing and washing; with the
arrangements for burial of the dead, and with the regulations in force for lodging
houses and slaughtering places; for the cleansing of public ways and markets; and
for the removal of domestic refuse. And if he be the first Officer of Health
appointed in his district he will, without unnecessary delay, furnish to the Local
Authority a connected account of these matters so far as they relate to the public
health, making thereon such practical suggestions as he may think applicable."