View report page

A valuable improvement has been made in 1864 in the method of
procedure with owners of houses that are habitually kept dirty. Much of the
poor house property in the district is owned by some few landlords who
wanted incessant looking after, and had come to regard the lenient measures or
warning adopted by the Board as a cheap way of keeping them informed
about the state of their premises. The Board has now resolved that in the
case of persons habitually offending against the sanitary laws, proceedings
before a magistrate shall be taken immediately if a simple notice be neglected
The public sewerage works done by the Board during 1864 comprise an
important sewer in Tavistock Mews, one in New Yard Great Queen Street,
and a sewer that has been of much service to the inhabitants in Bloomsbury
Market. The Surveyor's report gives particulars as to the extent of these
works. The streets in which new sewers are most urgently required are
Dudley Street and New Compton Street.
In the presence of the epidemic of typhus that has continued through
1864, continued attention has been given to the ventilation of houses and to
preventing overcrowding of rooms. The proceedings noted on the table do
not represent the whole of the care that has been taken to provide for the
health of the poor in these respects, for handbills (in the form now long