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Public Health Department,
Deptford Town Hall, S.E.14.
June, 1951.
To the Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors of the
Metropolitan Borough of Deptford.
Mr. Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have the honour to submit my Annual Report on the health and
sanitary circumstances of the Borough during 1950.
During the year the Public Health Department was transferred to its
present quarters at 286, New Cross Road adjoining the Town Hall.
Before the war, the Public Health Department was housed in the Town
Hall occupying rooms on the ground floor and in the basement. When
the basement was required as a Control Centre, other temporary accommodation
was provided in the Town Hall and shortly after the outbreak
of war the Sanitary Inspectors were transferred to the Goldsmiths' College
in Lewisham Way. Following damage by enemy action at Goldsmiths'
College, the staff of the Public Health Department was transferred to the
Central Clinic in Amersham Road in January 1941, and it remained there
until the beginning of 1950.
The Central Clinic was built by the Deptford Borough Council and
was opened on 11th July, 1936. It consists of an administrative block
with quarters for the caretaker fronting on to Amersham Road with the
Clinic block set back beyond a courtyard at the rear. Although the
buildings had not been used exclusively for the personal health services
it was, in accordance with the spirit rather than the letter of the National
Health Service Act, 1946, transferred as a whole to the London County
Council on 5th July, 1948. Similarly the Health Centre in Harton Street,
mainly used for the treatment of tuberculosis, was transferred to the
control of the Regional Hospital Board.
It was anticipated that the Public Health Department would be
transferred from the Central Clinic as soon as alternative accommodation
became available and the requirement of the other services hastened the
process. It was required to install an X-ray department in the Harton
Street centre and this necessitated the transfer of the Foot Clinic to the
Amersham Road buildings with the consequent transfer of the Public
Health Department staff. It was decided to use 286, New Cross Road for
the Public Health Department, providing a reasonable amount of
accommodation by the rebuilding of the first floor, the building having
been reduced to a single storey during the war as a result of enemy action.
Pending the completion of this adaptation the staff moved into temporary
quarters in the Town Hall which proved to be extremely inconvenient and
it was with some relief that the final transfer was made in July 1950.
As the whole chain of transfers was the immediate result of the provision
of the X-ray equipment at the Harton Street Clinic it would be fitting to