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68
APPENDIX "C"
A HUNDRED YEARS AGO
In 1855 the Metropolis Local Management Act and the Nuisances
Removal Act for England made the Vestry the Local Authority and called
for the appointment of a Medical Officer of Health. These two acts
are probably the most important which have ever been framed for improving
the sanitary and social conditions of the people. The Borough
Council of Pinsbury, as we know it now consisted of the Vestries of
the Parish of St. Luke and St. James and St. John, Clerkenwell.
The early Medical Officers of Health were truly pioneers. With
very little help from Parliament they were responsible for guiding
their authorities towards realisation of the need for and carrying out
of a comprehensive public health programme from which has been built
the welfare services of today.
The conditions in which people were living in London in 1855 were
so bad that Medical Officers and Sanitary Inspectors were appointed in
the Metropolis before the rest of the country. By modern standards
the conditions were appalling. As Dr. Pavey said in his first report
to the Vestry of St. Luke in 1856 "it is evident that those who are
living under circumstances in which they are deprived of the ordinary
elements of health and comfort, cannot be expected to be satisfied and
happy, nor can they be expected to preserve those relations to their
fellow creatures which are essential to their own welfare, and to that
of all around them".
Many of the houses were thoroughly unsatisfactory and had no
back windows and yards and were walled in by higher houses and so had
little or no ventilation. They were extremely dirty; the walls being
covered with the stains of destroyed vermin and the drainage was either
none or very imperfect. As Dr, Pavey said "frequently there are no
privies and sometimes there is one privey for 50 100 persons. In
some houses a donkey is kept in a lower room while a family occupies
a room above", At least this animal must have had more room than
some of the inhabitants, for overcrowding was rife, In a room of 709
cubic feet capacity in Macclesfield Street 5 adults and 5 children
lived, each having an allowance of space equal to the capacity of a
box a little over 4 feet square. There was no regard for decencya
couple of sets of married people, with their children, and sometimes
unmarried grown-ups of opposite sexes were found occupying one room.
The water-supply was sadly deficient. The New River Company provided
the general supply of the district from the reservoir, after