London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Fulham 1957
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Fulham Borough]
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66
Film Shows:
The attendance at film shows has steadily decreased during the last two years,
probably due to the influence of television. As the last five shows, held from
September to December, only produced an average attendance of sixty two, the Public
Health Committee reluctantly decided to cancel the second half of the winter's programme,
January to March, 1958, and not to run any more shows. These shows were
expensive to run, the average cost being £10, and it has always been felt that there
should be a minimum audience of one hundred persons to justify the expense.
These shows have been held since 1951 and the following summary is appended to show the fluctuation in attendance:-
| Year | No. of Shows | Total Attendance | Average At tendance |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1951 | 4 | 552 | 138 |
| 1952 | 10 | 1,303 | 130 |
| 1953 | 13 | 1,642 | 126 |
| 1954 | 15 | 1,875 | 125 |
| 1955 | 14 | 1,442 | 103 |
| 1956 | 14 | 1,389 | 99 |
| 1957 | 12 | 991 | 83 |
Clean Air Act, 1956
The principal educational activity of the year was telling the people of Fulham how
the decision of the Council to make the whole of the Borough a Smoke Control Area
was to be implemented. The Act empowers authorities to take every practical means to
enable this to be done and, in a memorandum on Smoke Control Areas, issued by the
Ministry of Housing and Local Government, it was stated that "If the Minister agrees
that the proposal (i.e. to create a Smoke Control Area) may proceed the local authority
will be ready to start on a detailed survey of the area. The goodwill and co operation
of the public will be indispensable and the local authority will want to give as much
publicity as possible at this stage to their decision to proceed with the declaration
of a smoke control area. If it is among their first areas, publicity about the general
problem of air pollution and the different methods of dealing with it may be desirable,
together with any information about the authority's future programmed''.
The Public Health Cbmmittee decided to hold a Clean Air Exhibition for one week at
the Town Hall (Concert Hall) from October 28th to November 2nd and, in addition to the
normal methods of advertising the exhibition by posters and press announcements, to issue
an invitation card to all householders in the first Smoke Control Area. These invitation
cards took the form of a folded leaflet, the front of the leaflet bearing the following
design:-