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Report of the Medical Officer of Health. 103
small passage way about 8 feet broad. The removal of these
houses would, in my opinion, be beneficial.
25 families occupy one room, 39 occupy two rooms, 31 occupy
three rooms, and 25 four rooms and upwards. The number of
houses occupied by one family is 28, by two families 41, and by
three families four. There are also two common lodging-houses
in the street which are under the supervision of the London
County Council, and nine of the houses are registered as houses
let in lodgings. There are also, included in the houses inspected,
11 general shops.
35 of the houses have four rooms in the house (not including
kitchen and scullery), but originally these consisted of four rooms,
but one room in each case has been made into a shop.
The occupations of the males are as follows:—Hawkers and
costers 64, general labourers 32, carmen 9, bricklayers 3, plasterers
2, employees of the Wandsworth Borough Council 3, and the rest
consist of tinkers, wood choppers, and rag and bone dealers.
It would be interesting to ascertain why this street should be
occupied by so many of the coster class. The only reasonable explanation
is that when the Wandsworth Common Act was passed
in 1874, the costers and hawkers who at that time lived in vans on
the Common were cleared away, and as they had to find some
place of residence in the neighbourhood they migrated to Wardley
Street, the houses in which, at that time, had been recently
erected. Since 1874 this class has always resided in Wardley
Street and the present occupiers are largely the second generation,
although there still remain some of the original occupiers.
The Sanitary Inspector who has inspected this street on three
separate occasions reports that at his last inspection the houses
were in a much better condition. The only insanitary conditions
that may be said to exist are conditions arising from the careless
habits of the people themselves. Nearly all the notices that have
been served under the Public Health (London) Act, 1891, under
the recent inspection were notices to cleanse the walls and ceilings
of rooms and passages, and in a few instances to remedy defective
water-closet cisterns, the defects in these cisterns being largely in
consequence of bad usage