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the requirements of the growing parish that the Hornsey Local
Board was formed. The Board held its first meeting on the
7th November, 1867.
The new Board set about its task in no half-hearted manner,
and a few extracts from the reports of the Medical Officer of
Health at that time—Dr. Oakeshott—may prove of interest: —
In 1873 Dr. Oakeshott wrote as follows: —
"Dwellings.—The cottage property in Highgate, more
than any other portion of the District, cannot be said to be
in such condition 'as to leave nothing to be desired'—in
many cases damp, dilapidated, dirty and overcrowded, not
by lodgers, but by large families with small means, want
of management and cleanly habits. The condition due not
so much to neglect of the landlord as of the occupier, as
may be seen in adjoining cottages of the group, one a
picture of neatness and comfort, the next of destitution
and dirt.
If Hornsey has suffered more from invasion of the
builder, who has run up houses by the hundred with all
modern appliances of water supply and closets, while as
yet there was no possible overflow even from the cesspools,
Highgate may be said to have its special grievance in its
connection with times that are past. Until the last few
years the great highway to the North, and the first stage
out of London, when perhaps 60 or 80 coaches stopped daily,
Highgate possessed a colony of horse-keepers, grooms and
drovers, who, after their occupation was gone, still lingered
on the spot, and have left their cottages and their families
too in an equally dilapidated and wretched state. No
doubt this is the channel through which runs a large portion
of that relief drawn from the Union weekly, amounting, I
understand, to a very considerable sum.
Not the least important sanitary work carried out here
a short time since, and very appropriately largely aided by
a member of this Board, was the drafting off a number of
younger members of this colony to Canada, a work worthy
of imitation and to a larger extent.
I may say that with one or two exceptions I have met
with a perfect readiness on the part of the landlords or