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

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Bermondsey 1944

Report on the sanitary condition of the Borough of Bermondsey for the year 1944

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pected deliberate infection of the cargo, and there were some anxious
minds for a long time afterwards.
As well as the risk of infection of food there was always the possibility
of contamination of the water supply, and I believe there were
instances in which sewage was forced into the water mains for some
considerable distance. The very high standard of the Metropolitan
Water Board was maintained throughout the war, and it was only on
rare occasions that chlorination was perceptible to the taste.
The establishment of the Ministry of Food has led to some modifications
of procedure so far as the Food Inspectors are concerned
and has greatly increased the number of legal requirements with
which they have to be familiar, but there has been no slackening of
vigilance and there does not appear to have been any great increase
in adulteration or sophistication of foodstuffs during the war.
One of our most serious problems before the war was that of overcrowding.
At the end of 1938 there were nearly 2,000 dwellings
over-crowded in which lived more than 11,000 people. It is quite
impossible to obtain any reliable statistics of the present position, but
enormous damage was done to house property in this Borough, and
it seems likely that over-crowding may become a serious problem in
the near future. In August, 1939, the total number of houses in the
Borough was 19,529. As a result of bombing 3,200 houses were
either destroyed or so seriously damaged as to require demolition and
15,599 other houses were damaged less seriously. Only about seven
hundred houses escaped and most of these had windows broken.
A good many houses were damaged on more than one occasion, and
the total number of "damages" in this sense was 33,251.
In common with other districts much harm was done here to
council property. Bermondsey Town Hall was wrecked on
14th September, 1940, and again damaged on 10th May, 1941, on
which night the Mayor, Councillor Henley, was killed; and Rotherhithe
Town Hall was wrecked last year by a flying-bomb. Incendiaries
fell on the Public Health Centre on two or three occasions, but a fire-watch
patrol was maintained in this building from the outbreak of war
and no serious harm was done. In the case of the Centre at
98, Rotherhithe New Road, the hall was so badly damaged that it had
to be demolished and only the premises of the dental clinic at present
remain standing. Of the conveniences under the control of the
Public Health Committee, two were demolished. The Southwark
Park Road convenience has not yet been replaced, but a temporary
structure is in use in Thurland Road.
I suppose that after invasion and starvation the fear which has
afflicted us most during the war has been that of infection, and in this
matter there is cause for great thankfulness that such apprehensions
have so far been falsified. Considering the shelter life, over-crowding,
food rationing, the long hours of work and the anxiety of mind under