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One may take a rough guide from the average number of main meals
served daily in the catering establishments serving this type of meal
throughout the City. These premises number at least 3,000 and estimating
the average number of main meals served at these establishments to be
not less than 250 daily, a reasonable computation is a day population
in the neighbourhood of 750,000. These figures are not guess work, but
are deduced from estimates kindly supplied by the local Food Office.
While emphasising this aspect of public health service of particular
application to Westminster and central London generally, it must not
be inferred that work for the resident population, though different in
character, is not equal in importance. There are housing problems, overcrowding,
defective and worn out dwellings as elsewhere, many and varied
sanitary complaints, the incidence of infectious disease, problems of the
old people common to all districts but perhaps more concentrated in an
old built-up area than in one spread out in new suburbs with extensive
open space. Much credit is due to the City Council for the efforts it has
made during the past 25 years and the still greater enterprise it has
undertaken since the war to improve housing conditions and to provide
new flats on costly land for the benefit of many of its citizens. When the
new Pimlico Scheme is completed (1,621 flats) the Council will have
provided over 3,250 dwellings, apart from requisitioned houses. Many of
the existing flats are supplied with the amenities Jn vogue up to 1939
and those to be completed from 1949 onwards will complying with every
postwar standard of comfort and convenience.
The work of the public health department in a City of this character,
in no sense a dormitory one, covers a varied field, and it may be well in
view of the changes resulting from the National Health Service Act to
indicate some of the duties still the obligation of the City Council and
carried out by the Medical Officer of Health and his staff.
Housing.—The following is a summary of headings and figures.
Routine inspection of 1,275 dwellings during the year occupied by or
of a type suitable for occupation by members of the working classes.
Measures to remedy defects found on inspection. Representation of
areas of insanitary houses for clearance (Section 25, Housing Act, 1936),
12 represented and 11 cleared or partially cleared from 1931 to 1939, a
procedure to be resumed as soon as official sanction permits. Representation
and procedures for closing parts of buildings (e.g., underground
rooms) found to be unfit for habitation. Closing Orders numbering 844
have already been made. Nuisances to be dealt with under Public
Health Act procedure : These include defects of structure and repair in
dwelling houses of all grades, similar defects in other buildings, business
premises, offices, workshops, hotels, restaurants, &c. Such matters of
nuisances also include defects in water supply, heating and ventilation
systems, sanitary conveniences, drainage, &c., besides specific nuisances
caused by smells, noise, smoke, deposit of refuse on the many open
sites in the City and other matters. Some 1,291 notices were served
in 1948 for remedy of such defects.