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Annual Report on the Health and Sanitary
Condition of the City of Westminster.
19 2 4.
Mr. Mayor, My Lords, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have the honour to present my Annual Report for the year 1924.
It includes Returns required by the Ministry of Health and Home
Office.
As this is the last annual report which I shall have the honour to
present to you, I should have liked to have given a description of the
conditions existing 25 years ago, when the City was re-incorporated, and
compare it with it as now existing. Such a survey would have to be fairly
exhaustive, and as many points in connection therewith have been dealt
with in recent Reports, especially since the last Census, it is not necessary
to repeat them now. I have, however, taken the opportunity to include
in the body of this Report information showing to what extent the health
of the citizens of Westminster has improved as the result of the activities
of the City Council in all matters relating to hygiene.
The Council at its inception found that improvements initiated by
their predecessors were in progress, such as the formation of Aldwych
and Kingsway, which was brought about by the official representation
made by me with respect to a large area extending north of the Strand
which had a density of 900 persons per acre, rising in parts to as many as
1,200 crowded into old dark houses in narrow courts and alleys. The
average number of persons per acre in London at the time was 60.
Dwellings were being built by the County Council on the Millbank site,
and that neighbourhood was being opened out and other improvements
were in process of being carried out. There still remained a number of
unsavoury localities to which the Council turned their attention, in some
of which proceedings were taken to close the houses as unfit for habitation,
and in others the owners had to take steps to remove the insanitary
conditions.
By-laws giving certain powers of inspection of tenement houses had
been adopted but had not been put into execution in parts of the City.
(3692)Q A 2