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houses in Poplar and Compton Place there should still be
sufficient deaths found to show that the residents in these
houses died at nearly twice the rate that they did either in
St. Pancras or in London as a whole.
Another place deserving the attention of the Vestry is
Cooper's Buildings, situated near Cromer Street, in the
Gray's Inn Road sub-district.
Here are eleven houses in two rows placed but seven or
eight feet from each other. These houses are in a dilapidated
condition, have no backs to them, for the houses in Riley Street
and Dutton Street on either side abut on to them, and are
themselves provided with but the smallest of back yards.
Two water closets placed on the ground floor of one of
the houses serve for all the court, while one tap of water has
also to do duty for all the houses.
At the Cromer Street end the court is blocked up, while at
the northern end a factory at the rear of Manchester Street
stands within ten feet of the entrance. Thus surrounded the
circulation of air round Cooper's Buildings is further prevented
by the court being sunk some four to eight feet below the
level of the land immediately adjoining it.
In other areas where the houses are back to back, the
death-rate is also heavy; thus, in the block of houses composed
of Prospect Terrace on the one side, aud Derry Street, and
certain houses in Wellington Square on the other, notwithstanding
the difficulty of referring back to their own district,
the deaths of persons occurring in public institutions, there
is evidence to show that people in this block died at a rate
one-and-a-half times as large as that of St. Pancras or London
as a whole.
Draper's Place is especially one that has received the
attention of the Officers of the Sanitary Department. The
houses have frequently been cleansed, the water closets
have been reconstructed, and a water supply laid on
to them : that no effort should be neglected by the Vestry to
prevent sickness and death in these houses is best made
evident by stating that the death-rate was during 1881 not
less than 36.2 per 1000.
Mary Place, in the Regent's Park sub-district, has for a
long time been recognized as an area needing constant attention
from the Sanitary Department. It is entered through
an archway situated in Stanhope Street, and consists of two
rows of houses, the other end being closed by a warehouse.
The ground floor level of most of these houses is situated