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"houses and the model dwellings are beyond the reach of the very
"poor. What we require is the provision of two rooms at a rent
"between Is. and 2s. per week."*
Dr. Griffiths furnishes a large body of evidence to show how
extreme were the evils existing at that period and of the inevitable
effects following. In that year of 1856 he enumerates 1313
certified intra-parochial deaths as against 907 in 1900, the population
being almost exactly the same at the two periods.
In 1886 another sanitary survey of Clerkenwell was made at the
instigation of the Home Secretary.† I will quote only one statement
to show the general condition of house property at that time.
The Report is referring to the regulations theu advised by th
Local Government Board respecting houses let in lodgings, and the
Commissioner says: "It is stated that there are in the parish
" 4,700 houses [out of a total, say, of 6,000 to 6,500] to which the
" regulations might be made to apply, of which 3058 are houses in
" which the landlords are resident, and liable for repairs, rates and
" taxes. As to these, some discretion would be required in placing
" them under the regulations. But as to the remaining 1,642 houses
" and cottages in which the landlords are non-resident, I am of
"opinion it is most desirable they should be placed under the
" regulations as many of the houses are dirty and dilapidated."
This sipgle statement shows very clearly the great requirements
which even then existed. In the following year (1887) the Vestry
appointed a Committee of its own members to consider the condition
of the courts and alleys in the parish, and they reported in
December, 1887, that house accommodation was exceedingly
limited and much of it open to very serious criticism.
Lastly, we may observe what the condition of house property was
in 1897, when Dr, C. W. F. Young, Assistant Medical Officer of
the County of London, made a sanitary survey of Clerkenwell.
*General Report upon the sanitary state of Clerkenwell for 1856. By
J. W. Griffith, M.D., M.R.C.P., p. 6.
†Report of Mr. D. Cubitt Nichols to the Home Secretary of his inquiry into
the sanitary condition of Clerkenwell, 1886. Mr. Nichols was assisted by Dr.
Parkes, Dr. Griffith, Mr. Paget, Mr. W. Robson, Mr. J. J. Goode, and others.