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7
Public Health in Retrospect
1857-1957.
The following has been extracted from a report made by Dr.
Connor, Medical Officer of Health for the Battersea Parish, in 1857.
"Particular attention is called by Dr. Connor to the unsanitary
Condition of the houses in Francis Street, in one of which seven cases
of Scarlet Fever had occurred, and which he conceived had been greatly
aggravated by the filthy state and defective drainage of this locality.
In one of the returns, there is also mentioned an inspection of Ford's
Buildings, which disclosed similar deficiencies as those found in Francis
street, the keeping of pigs (77 in number, in the rear of the buildings),
Contributing in no small degree to the unhealthiness of the neighbourhood.
Other inspections are alluded to, and the houses said to be greatly
deficient in drainage, dustbins, and traps to the gullies. The health of
this sub-district is spoken of as having been tolerably good throughout
the quarter, but that several of the diseases of the zymotic class had
been prevalent."
As a matter of interest, Francis Street was re-named in 1887, and
is now known as Lithgow Street. Ford's Buildings were in York Road,
and the site is now occupied by Durham Buildings, erected approximately