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63
The Nursery is open on five and a half days in the week for children,
the charge to parents being 5s. for each child per week with remissions in
special cases. The charges for resident children range from 12s. 6d. to
15s. per week.
SANITARY CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE AREA.
Water.—All premises in Westminster, with the exception of those
provided with deep wells, take their water supply from the Metropolitan
Water Board. In a number of cases, the supply is obtained from both
sources.
Two deep wells were sunk during 1938, both at Rex House, 2/12,
Regent Street, W.l.
During the year extensive enquiries were made and it was found that
there is a total of 150 deep wells in the City; 51 of them are now out of
use owing to the failure of the supply, while 99 are still actively
functioning. Some were sunk 70 to 80 years ago. As more wells have
been sunk the level of the subterranean water has become lower, so
that wells now have to be bored to much greater depths; consequently
the deeper wells in some cases have deprived the more shallow ones
of supplies of water.
Many of the large blocks of business premises and flats draw their
supplies from more than one boring. The 99 wells now in use serve 65
properties.
As mentioned in the report of the Medical Officer of Health for
1937, reports on the chemical analysis and bacteriological examination
of samples of water from deep wells are being collected. Of 56 certificates
received only one has shown an unsatisfactory result. This sample
showed a high bacterial count and indicated the presence of B. Coli; as
a result of this the water has since been chlorinated. It was suggested
by the water engineers concerned that the contamination might be due to
leakage downwards from a disused well in the same street within about
100 yards. This disused well, which had been out of use since 1920,
consisted of a brick shaft about 10 feet in diameter and some 150 feet
deep, below which was a boring to approximately 350 feet in all from the
surface. It contained water about 150 feet from the surface, and a
sample submitted to the City Council's Bacteriologist showed that it