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
Kensington 1955
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Kensington Borough]
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Category 2. Overcrowding in excess of the
Modified Standard.
Category 3. Overcrowding above the legal
standard but within the Modified
Standard, where there are
special medical reasons involved.
Category 4. As in Category but without
special medical circumstances.
Cases within Categories 1,2 and 3 have been considered
by a special Sub-Committee of the Public Health Committee
which was established for that purpose. Cases within
Category 4 have not been reported but records have been made
and the families are kept under observation by the sanitary
inspectors who try and secure abatement by persuasion.
Seventy-eight new cases were dealt with in 1955 by the Special Sub-Committee as follows:-
| (a) Recommended for alternative accommodation by the Council | 36 |
| (b) Proceedings ordered to be taken without prior offer of alternative accommodation | 3 |
| (c) Action postponed | 31 |
| (d) Warnings sent to abate overcrowding within specified period | 8 |
The total number of cases of overcrowding abated during
the year was eighty-nine and, in addition, fifty-eight Category
4 cases were also abated during the year.
Since the war, the Special Sub-Committee have dealt with
one thousand, one hundred and ninety-nine cases of overcrowding
under Categories 1, 2 and 3, and no fewer than nine hundred and
sixty-seven of these nave been abated.
Assessment of Housing Priorities on Medical Grounds
.During the year two hundred and eighty-six applications
for re-housing on medical grounds were examined, and
recommendations for the award of additional points were made
to the Chief Housing Officer. In each case the precise
medical condition and resultant disability were determined
(frequently necessitating communication with the family doctor
or with the hospital attended.) The premises were inspected
in detail to ascertain the extent and nature of the existing
accommodation; the adequacy of day and sleeping space; the
risk of infection; the existence of remediable or irremediable
sanitary or structural defects, and the existence of inconveniences,
such as stairs which might be prejudicial to the patient.
On this information and that supplied by the Chief Housing
Officer, an assessment of points to be awarded on medical grounds
was made.
In thirty-six cases, recommendations for re-housing on
medical grounds were also made to the London County Council, and
to other local authorities in four cases.
Accommodation for Costermongers
The general condition of mews dwellings in the borough has