Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Report on the vital and sanitary statistics of the Parish of Lambeth during the year 1899
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tation; whilst the 27,316 Notices served under the Public
Health Acts have all been complied with, and the 40,440
defects made good. In some few instances it has been found
impossible to render the houses fit for habitation, owing to
their positions or conditions, and in these cases the houses
have been closed, and afterwards demolished, e.g., Francis,
Fountain and Paved Courts (off the Lambeth Walk', Commercial
Buildings, Le Grand Place, Windmill Court, etc.
A strict and constant supervision in the poorer and more
congested parts of the Parish, ensuring the houses being kept
up to a fair sanitary standard, is proving satisfactory, as far as
the houses themselves are concerned, and I may even add, as
tar as the tenants too are concerned, for experience shows
that in sanitary matters, as in other matters, people are
dependent upon their surroundings. Where houses are
dilapidated and insanitary, the tenants show a tendency to
become morally and physically the same, and vice versa—
indeed, the apathy of tenants is remarkable, rendering
frequent inspections of their houses by the Officers of a
Sanitary Authority a sine qua non. In connection with these
inspections of houses, the powers given under the Public
Health (London) Act, 1891, for the Registration of Houses
Let in Lodgings, may be found to be of great value and assistance,
especially in the case of the worst properties—351
houses having already been registered in Lambeth under the
new Bye-laws, which were unfortunately not confirmed by
the Local Government Board until May nth, 1897. The
result of constant supervision by house-to-house inspections
(such inspections to take place periodically, i.e., once or
twice a year, at least) is the gradual levelling up of the old,
dilapidated and insanitary properties, more especially in the
older and more congested parts of the Parish, without, in
fact, any displacement. An important statement like this
ought to be accompanied by proofs, and I give, therefore, the
following list of courts, etc., in the (1) Inner, and (2) Outer