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Stone Yard, Lithos Road (now the site of the Public Health Station and
Electricity Depot) for the accommodation of families who were
temporarily displaced whilst their homes were being disinfected.
There is little of real moment recorded in the following years
but concern was expressed over the quality of the water supplied to
the area. A survey showed that 4 wells were still in use for domestic
purposes. In 1894 electricity was used for the first time for street
lighting and Finchley Road was the first road so lighted.
Towards the end of the decade there were several outbreaks
of typhoid fever.
The London Government Act, 1899 created the Metropolitan
Boroughs and Hampstead "attained its full administrative dignity as a
municipal unit in London, representing another step forward in its
steady development from an early ecclesiastical vestry, a manorial
court, a local government vestry to a Metropolitan Borough. During
these centuries the isolated village at the top of the hill had grown into
an inseparable part of the great metropolis, "
The boundaries of the Borough of Hampstead followed very
closely those of the preceeding Vestry of the Parish of St. John.
Increased powers were given to the Council and in particular power
to adopt Part III of the Housing of the Working Classes Act, 1890.
At that time, the staff of the Public Health Department was
a chief and three district sanitary inspectors and two clerks, but
shortly afterwards an inquiry was begun into the housing conditions in
the Borough with seven temporary inspectors, As a result of this
investigation into the state of old worn-out properties and mews
dwellings where coachmen lived in rooms over the stables, many of
the older dwellings were condemned and efforts were made to find a
site for the erection of new dwellings. This was eventually found in
Lower Cross Road (now Garnett Road), and Park Dwellings were
erected and were opened in 1906.
Shortly after the formation of the Borough, a campaign
against tuberculosis was begun and in 1901 Hampstead was a pioneer
in instituting a system of voluntary notification. The Borough had
two beds in the then Mount Vernon Hospital for Consumption and