London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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Wandsworth 1893

Report on the health and sanitary condition of the several parishes comprised in the Wandsworth District during the year 1893

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the smallest intention of using the hospital for small-pox
patients, as such patients were taken to the hospital ship
on the River Thames ; and that with reference to tho
burials the Managers had not hitherto claimcd a right to
inter patients iu the parish in which their hospitals were
situated, and that unless the patients were buried by their
friends the Managers carried out the funerals at the
Woking cemetery, and that in all probability no patients
dying in tho proposed hospital would be buried in Tooting
unless they had resided there before their admission into
the hospital. The Local Government Board sanctioned
the scheme, and temporary buildings were at once erected
and are now in use. The Managers have under consideration
the plans of the proposed permanent hospital.
The Metropolitan Asylums Board did not, however,
abandon their intention of purchasing the Tooting Lodge
estate, and in February last a public inquiry was held
by the Local Government Board at the Tooting Vestry
Hall into a proposal by the Managers to acquire the
estate for the purpose of erecting thereon an infirmary
for imbeciles. This Board decided not to oppose the
establishment of the proposed infirmary, provided that
the building was used for that purpose only, and supported
the suggestion made on behalf of residents in the neighbourhood
that if the sanction of the Local Government
Board was given to the proposal it should be upon condition
that the site should not, under any circumstances,
be used as a hospital for cases of infectious diseases. The
proposal was sanctioned by the Local Government Board
subject to those conditions.
The Unemployed. In March, 1893, the Local Government
Board wrote to the Board asking for particulars of works
of an exceptional character undertaken in the District
in consequence of want of employment by the labouring
classes, and as to works which would in the ordinary
course have been carried out by the Board, but the
b 2