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 Westminster, City of]
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Dwellings. The majority of the deaths are confined to Bessborough
Place, which also contributes the phthisis and diarrhoea deaths.
District No. 12.—The census population was 2,202. The bulk of the
population is of a respectable working-class type, dwelling in such
typical streets as Lillington and Tachbrook Streets. In Dorset Street
(now Rampayne Street) and Garden Street are two-storey cottages of
a good type. In Bessborough Street and Gardens and in Vauxhall
Bridge Road a better class are housed; many bouses are let in
apartments. 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.
The total mortality from 1901 to 1904 was 211 and was high as
compared with rates for the ward and City, but the phthisis and
respiratory rates are fairly satisfactory. The rate for all causes rose to
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
and Lillington Street, probably due to an influx of people from adjacent
areas. During the last three years the average rate has fallen still
further to an average of 16.0. Lillington Street, which is partly also in
No. 14 District, demands a certain amount of regular attention from
the sanitary inspectors. There has been no decrease in the total
number of deaths in the seven years, 35 being the average number, of
which 4 each year resulted from phthisis.
District 14 extends higher up the Vauxhall Bridge Road from
No. 12 District. It bad a population of 2,935 as the census, and there
has been practically no alteration. The property consists of threestoreyed
houses with shops, and there is a block of artisans' dwellings
(Cambridge Buildings) in Upper Garden Street housing 200 people.
The mortality rates are better than No. 12 District.
The survey which has been made shows that this Ward of the City
has been slowly undergoing change for more than 50 years. The
alteration began with the formation of Victoria Street; it proceeded
slowly for many years, but gradually the old style of house has been
displaced by dwellings constructed in fiats, and by premises to be used
for business or official purposes. Much of the property belongs to the
Ecclesiastical Commissioners, and as leases have fallen in the sites
occupied by such houses as had become old and dilapidated have been
cleared; some of these are still vacant, but the Commissioners have
erected a considerable number of dwellings to accommodate families of