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15
owned two shelters which were lent to patients who might wish to use
them in their own gardens, This open air and rather spartan treatment
might not meet with universal approval today, but it did at least
diminish the likelihood of infection of other members of the family.
In 1912 the Municipal Tuberculosis Dispensary was opened in the
Health Institute.
In 1917 the Borough Council's Pre-Maternity Clinics opened
in the Town Ward and in Kilburn, and when in 1918 the Maternity and
Child Welfare Act was passed, the Council appointed additional staff
and extended the work and the number of clinics.
Following the Housing Act, 1919 a special survey of the
Borough was made and schedules of dilapidations were served in 1 ,264
cases. Two years later in 1921 the municipal dwellings comprising
140 flats were erected at South End Close.
This note of the early history of public health in Hampstead
can perhaps best be ended in the words of Mr. F.S.Hill, the former
chief clerk of the Public Health Department, who served Hampstead
so well from 1896 to 1940.
"Thus the nature of the work of the Department has grown
from environmental, to personal, care. Apart from the War years,
the development has continued and steadily increased, Hampstead
has been fortunate in the progressive character of its early Vestrymen
and Councillors and of those who have succeeded them".