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be injurious to their moral welfare, and will conduce more than anything else
to the shortening of theirlives. In such a scheme as that now under consideration,
it is therefore, of the last importance that the sanitary aspects of the
case should not be overlooked.
A useful measure has been adopted to prevent overcrowding in Lincoln
Court. On the inside of every room door a paper has been affixed, stating the
number of inhabitants that can be allowed to reside in that room, in conformity
with the scale of cubic space settled by the Board of Works. The owner
deserves to have the credit of assenting to this plan.
A special report was made in 1863 upon one of the worst spits in our
district, Church Lane and its vicinity. As this report is in print, it is only
needful here to mention the conclusion which it arrived at; that unceasing
care was demanded of the owners of the houses to prevent the incessant
recurrence of dangerous nuisances among the miserable population. But
that the very construction of the courts, and especially the way in which
every spot of groundin the rear of the lane was covered by thickly tenanted
hovels, was an obstacle to effectual sanitary improvement; that the absence of
any notion of decency among the residents tended to perpetuate nuisances,
and that conversely the filthy conditions under which they lived, were injurious
to all notions of decency.
The courts about Coram Place, which were stated in the last of these
reports to be deteriorating from year to year in their sanitary state, have been
shown in the present report to have experienced a still higher rate of mortality
from those diseases that are most produced by the operation of bad hygienic
circumstances. What could be done in these courts by the action of the
Sanitary Inspector has been done throughout the year, but the original arrangement
of many of these courts, in hollows below the street level, where the air
is stagnant and the drainage bad, constitutes an unhealthy condition with
which the Inspector has no power to deal, but which appears to be making its
influence more felt as each year passes by. Representations to this effect have
been made in 1863 to the Committee of the Foundling Hospital, upon whose
estate most of these courts are situated. This Committee state that they have
no power to undertake a thorough reconstruction of these courts until the
expiration of the existing leases. They have given instructions to their
Surveyor, however, to see that the covenants of the leases are strictly enforced
as to the proper maintenance of the property.
The Slaughter-houses of the district that were formerly licensed have had
their licenses renewed. Applications for new licenses were made by owners
of slaughter-houses in Drury Lane and New Yard, and were opposed, as the
places in question were not in conformity with the requirements of the Building
Act of 1848. Their licenses were consequently refused. The New Yard
premises had previously been employed as a slaughter-house without a license,
and for this infringement of the law the owner would have been summoned if
he had not immediately ceased to employ them for that purpose. All the
licensed slaughter-houses have been repeatedly inspected, and are in satisfactory
order.
The Cow-houses of the district received considerable improvement from
their proprietors before the time came for a renewal of their licenses at
Michaelmas. Several of them however remained in an especially defective
state, and their owners received their licenses with a warning to keep them
better. The regulations of the Board for the management of these establishments
have been pretty well observed in the majority of instances, so that it is
to be hoped that the injury to health which cow-houses are demonstrated to
produce in St. Giles's may be somewhat lessened in the future.