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

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Finsbury 1914

Annual report on the public health of Finsbury for the year 1914

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46
2. The baby was 3 months old, and the seventh child. Three
children had died. The family occupied 2 rooms. The father had
chronic asthma and was only able to work occasionally. He
earned about 10s. a week. The mother wished to go to work
but was unable to do so because she had to care for the children.
The weekly rental was 4s. 6d. The milk for the family cost
2s. 6d. a week. This left 3s. for their food, which was chiefly
tea, bread, and margarine. The mother was pale and underfed.
3. The baby was 3 weeks old, puny and hungry. There were
5 other children under 14 years. The mother was haggard and
dirty. The father was a general labourer earning 18s. per week.
The family occupied 2 rooms at a weekly rental of 5s. Coal and
firewood cost 5d. a day. A boy of 3 years was underfed, ricketty
and had no shoes or stockings. The father had not had new
clothes for many years—he bought second-hand clothes in a
market street. The family of eight lived on 10s. a week.
4. The family consisted of the parents, a baby, and an older
child, and lived in one room let at a weekly rental of 4s. 6d. The
father was a postman earning 30s. a week, but gave his wife only
15s. a week for housekeeping. She was unable to manage on this
small amount and worked as a dressmaker, earning 10s. to 12s.
a week. In the meantime, because the mother had to work, the
children were being neglected and wasting.
5. The baby was 2 weeks old and the sixth child. Three
children had died. The family occupied 2 rooms. The father was
blind and, led by a neighbour, went at night to sing to theatre
queues. The mother worked by day as a street flower seller. During
her absence the baby was cared for and fed by its blind father.
It was having biscuits and water, prepared by its mother before
she went out in the morning. It was having no milk. All the
children were very ricketty.
Homo Circumstances.—In squalid streets, many of the
tenements showed evidence of poverty sometimes approaching to
destitution. There was little or no furniture, one or at most two