View report page

16 Parish of St. George the Martyr, Southwark.
In the same report, Dr. Long, in discussing the cause of the epidemic north of
the Thames, says :—" That between 50 and 60 cases were attacked in April, May and
June, in an area f mile by £ mile, extending along the Edgware-road, with its centre
very near the Salvation Army Shelter in Lisson-street, Marylebone; this fact is
suggestive, though there is no direct evidence of the outbreak being secondary to the
shelter."
So far as St. George's and the South of London are concerned, I have a firm
impression that small-pox in 1893 was largely spread through the medium of the
Blackfriars Salvation Shelter, and to a much greater extent than the figures in Dr.
Long's table would appear to warrant.
My experience tells me that many of the workhouses, infirmaries, and general
hospitals, together with the licensed common lodging houses, and particularly the
casual ward, played the part of filters in removing vagrant infection.
In my Annnal Report for 1892, a warning note was sounded in the following
words:—" I fear the Salvation Army Shelter, situated in the Blackfriars-road, which
is capable of accommodating nightly 400 men and youths, practically in one large
dormitory, at a charge of Id. and 2d., according to the nature of the accommodation
—i.e., Bunk, bench, or bare floor—will, in the future, prove a serious means of
spreading small-pox, and other communicable diseases."
" I understand the shelter is to be enlarged, and I believe that prompt measures
should be taken, in the public interest, to place this and other similiar shelters—
benevolent or purely money-making in their aims—under the salutary provisions of
the Common Lodging House Acts."
Since writing the above the shelter has been enlarged, and will now accommodate
500 persons in the Id. shelter, 288 in the 2d. bunk dormitories, and 40 in the 3d.
cubicle dormitory; in times of pressure, by utilising a covered passage, the whole
place can be made to contain a total of 900. These figures were furnished by the
Officer in charge of the Shelter.
In the case of Edwai'ds v. the Superintendent of the Blackfriars Shelter, I was
asked by the counsel for the defence whether I could suggest—as a practical sanitarian—any
addition to the regulations which were alleged to be in force. I
answered that a reduction of numbers and the fixing of a maximum for the several
dormitories of the shelter might be made with advantage. That suggestion, however,
has not been acted upon.
Measurements of the shelter, for instance, which harbours on an average 350, and
occasionally as many as 500 persons, give on the former estimate a floor space of 8
square feet and a cubic space of 130 cubic feet per head. On the higher estimate of
500 occupants the dormitory gives only 6 superficial and 90 cubic feet of space to each
inmate.
In common lodging-houses in London, which are under police supervision, the
existing regulations insist on 31 superficial and 341 cubic feet of space to each adult
over 12 years. In workhouses 300 cubic feet are allowed for each adult in a dormitory
; in military barracks about 600 cubic feet; in prison cells, under the separate
confinement system, about 800 cubic feet with artificial ventilation; and in the best
general hospitals about 1,200 cubic feet of space for each bed, and 100 superficial
square feet of floor space.
From a comparison of these facts and figures it will be seen that I do not exaggerate
when I say that overcrowding to a dangerous extent exists in the Blackfriars
Shelter, especially when we consider the exhalations given off from the dirty
bodies and clothes of the vagrants by whom it is frequented.