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conversion of a common lodging-house in Monck Street into tenement
dwellings. Possibly also allowance should be made for a number of
former residents of the district who are now in the workhouse or
infirmary (the majority of the deaths take place in the infirmary or in
hospital), so that the figure 23 3 is without doubt considerably below
the real rate. (See Table, p. 118.)
It is desirable to consider the streets of this district more closely
than is necessary with most of the other areas.
Laundry Yard is a long narrow passage. Up to recently it
contained 19 houses, with 58 rooms and a population of about 120,
7H being adults and 47 children; from 1901-4 the death rate was about
37 per 1,000. Eight of the 22 deaths were of infants under 1 year, and
were due chiefly to diarrhoea; 7 deaths of older persons were due to
bronchitis and pneumonia and 4 to phthisis. In 1906 there were no
deaths and in 1907 only 2. Seven houses, accommodating 36 persons,
were closed in 1906 and have now been pulled down; they contributed
10 of the 22 deaths. They were small cottage property. The remaining
houses are frequently inspected and are now kept in much better
condition than formerly; they will, however, be cleared away as part of
the Improvement Scheme.
Arneway and Medway Streets consist of small houses which are
maintained in good sanitary condition, but the remainder of the district
constitutes an area the condition of which requires serious consideration ;
it consists of one side of Great Peten Street, Blue Anchor Court and
Chadwick Street, and unfortunately does not form part of the Improvement
Scheme. I have reproduced this neighbourhood on a larger scale
so that the relationship of this piece of St. John's may be seen.
Great Peter Street was at one time part of an area which had come
to be recognised as '' The Rookery," which lay between Great Smith
Street and Strutton Ground, and extended over part of the site now
occupied by Victoria Street. Originally it was the " Sanctuary"
adjoining the Abbey, and had afforded refuge to debtors, thieves
and lawbreakers generally for many hundreds of years (the privilege
of sanctuary within the precincts of the Abbey was first granted
by the Saxon King Sebert, was extended by Edgar and confirmed by
Edward the Confessor). The districts in which asylums of this kind
were located naturally became centres of a pauper and criminal
population. The formation of Victoria Street in 1845 swept away a
large part of this rookery, and the schemes of 1876, already alluded to,
removed a further portion. There still remains one side of Great
Peter Street with Chadwick Street behind it, and between them Blue
Anchor Court.
Old inhabitants of Chadwick Street fand some have lived
I