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78 ADMINISTRATIVE WORK.
Settlements in the back additions of eight houses made works of underpinning necessary,
such works involving the reconstruction of parts of the house drains. At 24 houses damp-proof
courses were inserted in the main walls to meet complaints of dampness.
Inspections of 31 houses were required after infectious illnesses, the drains being chemically
tested—the only test which can be used by reason of the design of the drains—at 38 houses,
but no defects were disclosed by the tests.
Offensive Sewers.— In July last reports were submitted to the Public Health Committee
with reference to complaints received as to smells from sewers in Bravington Road and
in the railway tunnel between Bishop's Road and Edgware Road Stations. In the former
case the smells appeared to come from the "sand pits" at the roadside, the ventilators in the
middle of the roadway, and the covers to the side entrances and manholes. The Committee
were advised that properly trapped gully pots should be substituted for the "sand pits," that the
covers to the side entrances and manholes should be effectively jointed, and that the road
ventilators should be closed during the hot weather. The recommendations were forwarded to
the Borough Surveyor by the Committee.
In the early part of July there was a temporary blockage of the Praed Street sewer owing
to a landslip in the course of some work to the sewer. The diversion of the sewage into the
sewer in South Wharf Road (under the railway tunnel) caused a great nuisance in the tunnels
and stations. It was ascertained that the manholes to the sewer in the permanent way were
covered with loose boards and shingle. The Metropolitan Railway Co. were communicated
with and proper covers were subsequently fixed to all the manholes.
Near the end of the same month it became necessary to run off the water in the Canal
Basin owing to its putrid condition, alleged to have been caused by the taking in of water from
the Hendon storage ponds. It was currently reported, but denied by the Regent's Canal Co.,
that that water was polluted with sewage. The more probable cause of the pollution was the
decomposition of fresh-water algae. The "stop" was put down at 6 p.m., and up to 9 o'clock no
smell was noticed in the neighbourhood of the canal. After that hour up to midnight—and
probably later—there was an overpowering sewage smell in South Wharf Road, Praed Street,
Edgware Road and Harrow Road, to the eastward of the Basin, and in the railway tunnels and
stations. In the course of nineteen years no such occurrence has been previously observed. In
the hottest summers, when the water in the Basin has been putrid, no smells such as those
experienced in July last have been reported. It is believed that the cause of the numerous wellfounded
and (in some cases) strongly worded complaints was not the water from the canal, but
the sediment in the South Wharf Road sewer, a conclusion which appears to be supported by
the occurrences in the earlier part of the month just recorded.
Smoke Prevention.—Twenty (20) premises were kept under special observation last
year (see list), the total time given to this work amounting to 821/3 hours, 29 being so watched in
1911 and 20 in 1910.
The total time during which "black smoke" was observed last year was 32 minutes, as
compared with 22, 40, and 50 minutes in the three preceding years. Other shades (degrees of
density) of smoke were observed during 471/3 hours, as compared with 1135/8, 38, and 81¼ in 1911,
1910, and 1909.
1912.
" Black Smoke" 32 minutes
"Smoke" 471/3 hours.
No Smoke 34½ hours.
Five complaints of smoke, not necessarily "black smoke," were received during the year,
with reference to factories (2), fried fish shops (1), and bakehouses (2).