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Annual Report of the Medical Officer of Health—1897. 23
Proceedings under the Housing of the Working Classes Act have been taken on
three occasions within the last five years, but have failed from impossibility of proving
ownership and for other reasons. Notwithstanding, a good deal of improvement has
been effected, but the habits of the inmates make it hopeless to keep any decent standard
of cleanliness and sanitation for any length of time. The following extract from my
1894 Report (page 27) will show what was done in that year:— "After four adjournments,
Closing Orders granted, which lay 'in the interests of the unfortunate tenants'
in the magistrate's office, pending the carrying out of the following requirements which
were accomplished Ventilation pipes (4) and drains remedied; dust shoots and doors
repaired; water-.cisterns on roofs cleansed, covered and removed from close proximity
to the. soil ventilating pipes; impvoved water supply provided; general repairs and
cleansing done; owner fined £10 and 1 guinea costs in each case, or in default of
distress one month's imprisonment for each offence." Flint Street (by which name
Mr. Edwards evidently refers to what is now known as Silex Street.) No houses open
into this street. It is 28 feet across from wall to wall. At present the street is closed
at one end by boarding. The roadway is earth and thin macadam in bad repair and
full of holes. There is an asphalte foot pavement abutting on to the Gun Street
Dwellings. It contains dustbins into which is shot the house refuse from Sussex house
and Gun Street Industrial Dwellings. This street appears to be a general dumping
ground for refuse of all kinds, much of which is thrown from adjoining windows. The
street is cleansed, so I am informed, twice a week by the Vestry's scavengers. The
sewer underneath this street has been opened twice to my knowledge within the last
five years. It was answerable for the sewage flooding in Sussex house. The sewer
of this street appears to be defective.
Kell Street, Borough Road (which is evidently the "Hill Street" of Mr. Edward's
letter), is fairly well paved with stones of various sizes: foot pavement and gullies good.
It is 18 feet across. There are eight inhabited houses only in this street. The rest
have been closed under two Acts, 14 by my predecessor under the Nuisances Removal
Act, 1855, which prevents the Vestry from pulling them down; the 11 remaining have
been closed and demolished during my tenure of office under the Housing of the Working
Classes Act, 1890.
The eight houses are now in good habitable condition. Formerly they were damp
and liable to flooding from underground springs, but drainage has remedied that defect.
The general condition and cleanliness of the street is satisfactory.
Market Street, Borough Road, is now called Dantzic Street. It is 24 feet across,
the roadway of macadam, fairly level, and foot-paving and channelling good. It contains
about 50 houses, in fairly good repair, outside and inside. Each is supplied with a
sanitary dustbin, an outside flush water-closet, and water from the main. No
complaints have been made to me as to the sewers of this street. Nineteen of the
houses in this street arc registered and systematically inspected under the Tenement
Bye-laws. The general surface condition of this street is bad, so far as vegetable
refuse and other rubbish is concerned.
Gray Street, Waterloo Road, contains about 150 houses, each with six to eight
rooms. It is 30 feet across. Its roadway is macadam in fair repair, foot-pavement
and channelling fair.
The general condition of the houses is pretty good as to cleanliness, although the
rooms are small; and in numbers 2 to 34 (even numbers inclusive) there are
low-pitehed dark basement dwelling rooms. The population is dense, but the street
has not yet been placed under the tenement bye-laws. On the whole the condition of
the street is fairly good. The sewer is provided with a single ventilator, which, however,
is choked. Some years ago a complaint was made as to a nuisance issuing from
the street gullies. The latter were renewed and no similar trouble has since been
reported.