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
City of Westminster 1905
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Westminster, City of]
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In addition to structural conditions is the question of overcrowding.
There are in this street 218 tenants in 41 houses, or an average of
5.3 to the family, as compared with 44 for the City. With but one
exception, the whole of the lettings contain less than 5 rooms as
compared with 64.6 per cent. for the City, and the one-roomed
tenements actually amount to 91.6 of the total lettings. To put it in
another way, of a total of 592 persons, 495, i.e., 83.6 per cent., live in
single-roomed tenements. Apart from sanitation, the low standard of
morality, practically unavoidable, which is implied by this state of
affairs, is sufficiently obvious.
There has been as yet no demolition within District 5.
The streets are wide generally, and there are no courts except two mews of no great size, which do not contribute appreciably to the death-rates.
| All Causes. | Phthisis. | Other Respiratory. | Diarrhœa. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| District 12 | 21.1 | 1.7 | 3.5 | 1.1 |
| St. John's Ward | 18.3 | 2.4 | 3.7 | l.0 |
| City | 14.6 | 1.7 | 3.0 | 0.5 |
The total mortality is decidedly high as compared with rates for the
ward and the City, but the phthisis and respiratory rates are fairly satisfactory.
The rate for all causes was 24.9 in 1902 as compared with an
average of 19.7 for the other three years of the period, the excess of
deaths occurring in Dorset Street (now Bampayne Steeet) and
Billington Street. This contributes largely to the high rate of 21.1.
I find that during 1905 no less than 350 notices were served with
reference to sanitary defects in Districts 3, 4, and 5 (Chadwick Street
having had 46, Tufton Street and Place 34, Marsham Street 27, Begency
Street and Great Beter Street 24 each, Bomney Street 22, Bage Street
20, Wood Street 18, Baundry Yard 16); that is to say, that two-thirds
of the time of a male and a female Inspector have been taken up in
dealing with the insanitary conditions which seem constantly to cling
about parts of this area.