View report page

22
Magistrates), and to the unhealthy conditions of the dwelling houses
prevailing through long years of previous neglect, the earlier Vestries
and their Officers did most notable sanitary work, and laid the
foundations for all the great sanitary improvements which, after a lapse
of 40 years are now accomplished, or in process of accomplishment.
During the past 40 years a large number of very valuable
municipal improvements have been carried through, including the main
drainage of London, and the interception of the sewage from the
Thames in its course through the metropolis; the purification of the
Thames by the treatment of the sewage at the sewer outfalls; the
Thames Embankment; the removal of all the Water Companies'
intakes from the metropolitan portion of the Thames to the comparatively
unpolluted reaches of the upper river; the provision of a
constant water supply; the provision of most admirable isolation
hospitals, open to all ratepayers, free of cost, for the treatment of cases
of small-pox, scarlet fever, diphtheria, enteric fever, and typhus; a
splendid ambulance service for the removal of cases from their homes to
hospital, etc. In our own district, wo have benefited equally with tho
rest of London by all these municipal improvements, and wo have, in
addition, much improved our own sewers and house drains; roads also
have been widened, open spaces secured for the public, and some of tho
worst slums of old Chelsea have been demolished. The old parish has
lost much of its quondam quaint and picturesque features, but has
gained immensely in health, comfort, and convenience.