Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Hanover Square, The Vestry of the Parish of Saint George]
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No. 82. A house complained of by the lodgers on account
of offensive drains and a closet without water. A
notice was served, and the nuisance abated.
Hertford Arms Public House, Little Q-rosvenor Street. This
house was examined by the Medical Officer of Health and Inspector,
in consequence of a complaint of dampness in the
basement. It was found that the cellar was inundated at
times by land springs; and that the drainage of the house,
although good enough for its special purpose, was not at a
sufficiently low level to carry off this spring water. The
case was referred to the Surveyor.
Half-Moon Street, No. 32. This is a house, the occupier
of which has been an incessant complainant, and has considerably
taxed the time and ingenuity of the Medical Officer
of Health and of the Inspector. The house has been enlarged
by the erection of a back wing, or set of apartments
in the yard; a plan which gives internal space, but usually
at the sacrifice of light, air, and dryness. This part of the
house was infested with smells which made it almost uninhabitable,
and which were attributed at first to a neighbouring
slaughter-house, then to a large disused branch of the King's
Scholars' Pond Sewer, which was discovered to run under
this house and through White-Horse Yard at the back.
When it was shewn that neither the slaughter-house nor
sewer could be the cause of the nuisance; a further search
was made, when it was found that Nos. 33 and 34 adjoining,
had cesspools in their back yards, the overflow of which
passed by old brick drains into the basement of No. 32, and
thence into the old sewer just mentioned. Hereupon, the
owners of Nos. 33 and 34 were induced to drain their
premises by a new pipe drainage into the sewer in front, and
all connection with the old sewer was cut off.
The York Minster Public House, North Audley Street.