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11
The Laundry department is of great value in affording the poor
housewife an opportunity of washing and drying her linen away from
her one room, in which the family have to live night and day. I
have frequently seen a small room of this kind with from four to
eight or even ten inmates, rendered doubly unhealthy by these
laundry operations, which produce a damp and almost malarious
atmosphere.
This Society has recently spent a considerable sum for new
apparatus, and their funds are at present rather low. It would be
well if another such establishment existed in the neighbourhood of
King's Cross, in Somers Town, or the Pancras Road.
HOUSE DRAINAGE.
A great deal has been done during the past year in the
improvement of house drainage. No fewer than 900 houses have
had their drainage improved in consequence of representations made
to the owners. 329 cesspools have been filled up. In some cases
these cesspools were within the four walls of the house, under tho
staircase or in the cellar, and were thoroughly poisoning the dwellings
in which they were situated.
Wherever it has been practicable, cesspools have been filled
up, and glazed pipe drainage, with a pan and water supply, substituted
for the open privy. In order to render this possible, it is
necessary that there should be a sewer within a short distance of
the house, and many cases have come under my notice in which
cesspools cannot be abolished from the want of such a sewer.
Scarcely anything has this year been accomplished by your
Board in the matter of new Sewerage. It is to be hoped that this
very important part of your functions will be actively exercised
in coming years.
The following is a list of some of the places without a main
sewer. Those marked with an asterisk have been brought forcibly
under notice by frequent complaints, or prevailing sickness during
the last year.
In Ward I. — Green Street (Great & Little), Kentish Town.
Mansfield Place, Kentish Town
Prospect Place, ditto
Spring Place, ditto
Wesleyan Place, ditto
Willow Walk, ditto
*Crown Place, ditto