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To the Chairman and Members of the Public Health Committee
of the Metropolitan Borough of Finsbury.
Gentlemen,
In accordance with the instructions of the Public Health
Committee, I submit herewith a preliminary Report on the Housing
Question in Finsbury. I recognise that what follows can only be
accepted as fragmentary, and of the nature of notes. The problem
is a large one, involving a great variety of considerations to which
we are bound to have regard. There are the further difficulties of
ways and means.
The present Report has been arranged for convenience in four
sections as follows:-
1. Introductory Notes.
2. A Record of Work already undertaken from 1875-1901.
3. House Property and Overcrowding in 1901.
4. Some Notes on Proposed Ways of Proceeding.
I beg to take this opportunity of expressing my indebtedness in
various quarters for assistance in the compilation of this Report.
I am under considerable obligation to Mr. C. J. Stewart's comprehensive
history of the Housing Question in London from 1855-1900,
and for the sanction to reprint six plans herewith incorporated; to
various official reports issued under the authority of the late
Vestries of Clerkenwell and St. Luke by Dr. Griffiths, Dr. Pavy,
Dr. Glaister, and Dr. Yarrow; and to Dr. Tatham and other
authorities at Somerset House for assistance with regard to the
statistics. I must also express my grateful appreciation to Mr.
Horace Warner for the photographs which he has so skilfully taken,
and which accompany the Report.
I am, Gentlemen,
Your obedient servant,
GEORGE NEWMAN,
Medical Officer of Health.
Public Health Department,
Town Hall, Rosebery Avenue, E.C.
July 2nd, 1901.