View report page

42
Parish of St. George the Martyr, Southwark.
Parish Church of St. George the Martyr, and that of the "Lock," the latter of which
is situated in the Old Kent Road, close to the ancient site of the leper-house, which
existed in the thirteenth century.
The pressing need of more opportunity for the gutter children of Southwark to
enjoy healthy physical exercise and recreation in the open air is, I think, conclusively
proved by the following facts:—
(a.) This Parish is the most densely inhabited area in the whole of London, with
over 210 persons living on every acre, and with an increasing population.
(b) The general and zymotic death-rates are excessively high and partially preventable.
(c) The significant and extreme rate of 188 deaths before the completion of the
first year of life to every 1,000 births, and the percentage of 44.3 deaths under five
years to the total number of deaths.
(d) If any additional proof be needed in favour of the metropolitan nature of the
proposed improvement, I have only to call attention to the fact that during the years
1863-4, 1864-5, 113 and 128 deaths occurred respectively within this Parish from
typhus fever alone, and this without the inclusion of deaths of parishioners from the
same complaint which took place in extra-parochial hospitals. Several of these
deaths occurred, and much of the fever originated in the courts and alleys under
report, the construction of which was materially the same thirty years ago as it is
to-day. Typhus fever, a highly communicable and deadly affection, is often spread
by means of infected clothes, and is mainly fostered by inefficient ventilation, overcrowding,
bad feeding and, intemperance.
These are the very factors most noticeable in the area under consideration.
What applies to typhus fever refers with almost equal force to other preventable
and catching diseases, the germs of which, whenever and wherever they find
suitable soil, are liable to spread with disastrous effect throughout London in the
houses of the rich as well as in those of the poor.
It is a significant fact that the last death from Asiatic cholera which occurred in
this Parish, during the epidemic of 1866, took place in Redcross Court, then known
under the name of Redcross Place.
F. J. WALDO, Medical Officer of Health.
Vestry Hall, St, George the Martyr, Southwark.
January, 1894.
Metropolitan Ambulance Service.
Stations within or near the parish, containing litters and stretchers, and provided
by the Street Ambulance Branch of the Hospitals Association, for the transfer of sick
and injured persons (infectious cases excepted) are situated as follows:—
Marshalsea Road, at the junction of Mint Street.
Fire Brigade Head Quarters, Southwark Bridge Road.
Fire Brigade Station, Waterloo Road.
St. Thomas's Hospital.
Guy's Hospital, Southwark.
All metropolitan patients suffering from small-pox, fevers, and diphtheria, may,
on application, be conveyed to and fro, and treated free, within the isolation hospitals
of the Asylums Board.