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vii
In the Housing section the progress of the Grosvenor scheme is noted,
while the completion of the Ebury Bridge estate by relieving 210 families
from overcrowded and insanitary homes in the City is one of the greatest
single and completed measures of sanitary progress accomplished in
central London for the past twenty years. Other matters in this section
deal with underground rooms and the repair and future use of these and
other dwellings from which families have been re-housed. The Kensington
proposals as to underground rooms are discussed in detail.
The investigation of atmospheric pollution continues, and a full year's
records are submitted. It may be remembered that the imminence of the
opening of the large riverside power stations stimulated the initiation of
these researches. A new departure is the estimation of the sulphur gas
content of the air. Mr. Cecil Cribb, one of the Council's public analysts,
undertook the necessary chemical investigations and devised a somewhat
simpler method of gas absorption. His untimely death only a few days
ago is to be greatly regretted.
Orders under the Merchandise Marks and similar Acts continue in
number and increase the work of food administration. The standard of
food, especially as regards freedom from adulteration, is even better
than that of previous years. There is a pronounced superiority in the
quality of the milk samples taken in the South district as compared with
those in the North. This is a matter which ought to be brought to the
notice of the producers concerned.
The opening of the new Tuberculosis Dispensary and the two new
Maternity and Child Welfare Centres has made the year notable. The
Day Nursery has passed to the management of a new voluntary Committee
and its finances are in a much healthier state. The premises remain
inadequate and unsuitable, but if general economic conditions improve it
may be possible in the future to acquire premises more suitable for the
purpose.
The year as a whole has shown a slight slowing down of the building
developments which hitherto had been increasing year by year throughout
the City. Plans submitted of drainage work fell from 891 in 1930 to
748 in 1931: The work of the public health department, however, does
not seem to have shrunken judging from the correspondence passing in and
out of the department during the year. The figures are as follows :—
Letters received 3,821
Letters sent out 7,852