London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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St Pancras 1901

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for St. Pancras, London, Borough of]

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70
Drain Plans.—The following is an analysis of the Drainage Register for
1901 :—
Total number of applications 925
Number of applications without plans 182
„ plans 743
Plans, old buildings, under notice 470
„ ,, voluntary 254 743
„ new buildings and additions 19
Bye-laws as to Drainage.—Under section 202 of the Metropolis Local
Management Act, 18o5, the County Council have power to make and amend
drainage by-laws. A series of such by-laws were approved by the Local
Government Board on the 14th June, and presented to your Council on the
17th July.
§ 8.—REFUSE REMOVAL AND DISPOSAL.
Deposit of Refuse.—Deposits of refuse in the Borough of St. Pancras take
place in the Destructor Yard, Georgiana Street, Great College Street, N.W.,
and in certain yards or wharves of the Railway Companies, namely, the Midland
Railway Company's Goods and Cattle Sidings, Kentish Town Road,
N.W.; the Great Northern Railway Company's Goods and Cattle Sidings,
York Road, N.W.; and the London and Northern Railway Company's Goods
and Cattle Sidings, Maiden Lane, N.W. No refuse is manipulated in any of
these yards or wharves. Neither the refuse nor any organic constituent of the
refuse remains more than 24 hours in the yard or on the wharf. At the
Destructor, the metal objects having been first removed, the whole of the
combustible portion of the refuse is burnt in the furnaces, and the resulting
clinker utilised.
§ 9.—NUISANCES.
The Sanitary Aspects of Road-paving.—The surface of a roadway should be
impervious, hard, and smooth. From a sanitary point of view imperviousness
is the most important characteristic, from the point of view of durability of
wear hardness is the most important, and for convenience and comfort of
rolling traffic and conveyance smoothness is much sought after. Unfortunately
the greater the smoothness for passengers' comfort the less the foothold for
equine safety. Hence the compromise of running passenger conveyances upon
rails for smoothness, and horses upon sets of wood, or blocks of stone for
roughness and good foothold, as in the case of horse tramcars. One of the
great difficulties is the endeavour to reconcile the opposite requirements of
passengers and of horses, smoothness and roughness. With the advent of
electric tramcars and of motor road cars consideration for the horse will be
thrown more and more into the back ground, and main roads will be of
smoother and smoother surface until it will be unnecessary to lay special rails,
and only hardness and imperviousness will remain to be considered in laying
main roads.
Taking the four kinds of road-paving, namely—asphalt, granite sets, macadam,
and wood blocks, the first is the healthiest, because it is impervious,
smooth, and homogeneous, and, therefore, does not absorb, and is easily and