London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
St Pancras 1903
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for St. Pancras, London, Borough of]
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Of each of these underground dwellings a full and detailed report in writing
was laid before the Public Health Committee, and they are now being dealt
with in groups as rapidly as it is possible to deal with such a mass of
manuscript material four feet high.
It was resolved by the Borough Council that each of the illegally occupied
underground dwelling-rooms ordered to cease to be illegally occupied, be
entered in a Register of Underground Rooms to be kept for that purpose.
Later, upon a Report of the Medical Officer of Health, dated 2nd September,
1903, it was resolved by the Borough Council that each of the houses in which
an illegally occupied underground dwelling-room is ordered to cease to be
illegally occupied, be also registered and entered in the Register of Houses let
in Lodgings for the purpose of being periodically inspected by the Sanitary
Inspectors of Tenement Houses.
The results of serving notices upon the first 50 underground dwelling-rooms illegally occupied are shown in the following table: —
| Condition of Rooms. | Divisions. | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| S. | E. | W. | N. | Total. | |
| Total number of notices and rooms | 29 | — | 21 | — | 50 |
| Occupied as sleeping-rooms in conjunction with rooms above basement | 1 | — | 2 | — | 3 |
| Occupied for other purposes than sleeping | 7 | — | 10 | — | 17 |
| Rooms empty | 21 | — | 7 | — | 28 |
| Premises demolished | — | — | 2 | — | 2 |
These results were obtained after two prosecutions for illegal occupation.
Three of the above dwelling-rooms (two separate dwellings) have been
re-occupied since as sleeping-rooms.
As the law becomes better known it will be probably more easy to obtain
compliance than was the case with the first group of notices.
(d) Common Lodging Houses.—There are 25 Registered Common Lodging
Houses in St. Pancras, and these are supervised by the London County Council.
Salvation Army Shelters are Registered by the London County Council as
Common Lodging Houses, there is only one such shelter in St. Pancras. It is
interesting to read in the Local Government Board Report for 1902-3, that
Mr. Lockwood, the Board's Inspector for the Metropolis, states that a large
number of poor who throng to London, and first take refuge in Rowton Houses,
Salvation Shelters, and similar institutions, gravitate afterwards to Poor Law
establishments, and that in the Parish of Hammersmith there were admitted