London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Holborn 1929
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Holborn Borough]
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32
At a meeting of the Sunlight League in June, 1929, Sir Leonard Hill
demonstrated an apparatus for measuring the ultra-violet rays which reach us from
the sun. From the record published in the previous day's "Times," the strength
of rays in Kingsway was 4½ in comparison with 14 in Margate, the rays in London
being cut out by smoke pollution.
HOUSING.
Common Lodging Houses.
The common lodging house accommodation in the Borough is equal to 22
beds per 1,000 of the population. The death-rate amongst common lodging house
residents is very high; in this Borough it was 68.2 per 1,000 in 1929.
The following table gives details of the accommodation available in the common lodging houses in the Borough: —
| Ward. | No. of Lodgers for which licensed. | Total. | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Males. | Females. | ||||
| Central St. Giles | 7 & 11, Short's Gardens | William George Parker | 234 | — | 234 |
| Lincoln's Inn | Parker House, Parker Street | Frank Hunt (L.C.C.) | 349 | — | 349 |
| Lincoln's Inn | 1-7, Macklin Street | Leslie Campbell Ruttledge | 79 | — | 79 |
| Lincoln's Inn | 2-8, Kennedy Court | John Samuel Walters | — | 78 | 78 |
| St. George the Martyr | 40, Eagle Street | Joseph Benton | 50 | — | 50 |
| St. George the Martyr | 35, Devonshire Street | Ada Elizabeth Chesterton | — | 45 | 45 |
In London there is a shortage of common lodging houses for women. It will
be observed that in this Borough is one of the common lodging houses for women
started by Cecil Houses (Inc.) Women's Public Lodging House Fund, of which
Mrs. Cecil Chesterton is the Honorary Organising Secretary. (There are three
houses already open—one at 35, Devonshire Street, Theobalds Road, for 45 women
and 2 babies; a second at 47/51, Wharfdale Road, King's Cross, for 58 women and
12 babies; a third at 194, Kensal Road, N. Kensington, for 60 women and 18
babies. A fourth house is now under reconstruction and will be open shortly).
Cecil Houses came into existence in 1926, to provide beds for homeless women.
For one shilling a night they provide a bed, hot bath, hot tea and biscuits at night,
tea and bread and butter in the morning, and facilities for washing clothes. A
charge of 3d. is made for a cot. Cecil Houses resemble other common lodging
houses, in that they are run on the lines of cheap hotels: no lodger is asked to
help in the work of the house, etc., and no question is asked of anyone applying for
a night's lodging.
All types of women use the houses; matchsellers, flowersellers, itinerant
charwomen, domestics looking for situations, waitresses, women and children from
the provinces and mothers with children who through the housing shortage are
unable to find rooms. The Matrons are experienced, and more or less able to help
in the different types of destitution. Since the houses started the Committee have
been able to find jobs for over 400 women, and fit them out with clothes for the
situations which, otherwise, they could not have taken.