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THE STRAND DISTRICT, LONDON. 35
" with every villainy of life in action close on death, and every
" poisonous element of death in action close on life—here they
" lower our dear brother down a foot or two: here, sow him in
" corruption, to be raised in corruption: an avenging ghost at
" many a sick bedside : a shameful testimony to future ages how
" civilisation and barbarism walked this boastful island together."
After its closure in 1853, its condition became even worse until
in 1886, the Metropolitan Gardens Association after filling up the
gaps caused by the sinking of the soil and removing the rubbish
which had accumulated, covered it with asphalte and turned it
into a playground for children.
A House Record.—I have for a long time been impressed with
the necessity of having in the Health Department a system
whereby a record of the sanitary history of each house could
be kept in an accessible form. Under ordinary methods,
information regarding any particular dwelling is scattered through
a number of books, and Authorities have to depend to a large
extent upon the memories of their officials, and if infectious diseases
or deaths have occurred in a house, it requires considerable search
through old papers to find record of them. In preparing the
evidence in connection with the scheme under the Housing of
the Working Classes Acts dealing with the insanitary area in
the neighbourhood of Clare Market, much work was rendered
necessary from this cause, and since then I have kept a street
record of deaths, and this has gradually expanded to include a
record of other matters connected with each house, but it was, at
the best, only an index. In April last I explained to the Health
Committee a scheme which your late Clerk (who took a great
interest in the matter) and I devised, and the Committee approved
of the same. We found subsequently, that a method similar
had been adopted in 1894 by the Municipal Council of Paris,
and had been found of the greatest service by all departments of
the administration and by the general public.
The method adopted here is as follows :—Each house has an
envelope inscribed with the name of the street, the number of
the house, and a consecutive number corresponding with a number
on a card index. Within each envelope are placed plans of
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