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10
Public Health Department,
Town Hall,
Pancras Road, N.W.
June, 1914.
To the Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors of the Metropolitan
Borough of St. Pancras.
Gentlemen,
I have the honour to present to you the Fifty-ninth Annual Report on
the vital statistics and sanitary condition of the Sanitary District of
St. Pancras. This is the second annual report which it has been my duty to
submit, though it is the first complete year of office on which I have had to
report.
The year 1914 has been made memorable by the war, but although this was
in progress during the last five months of the year it has not had much
influence upon the vital statistics. One sanitary inspector was called up with
the Territorial Force, and one clerk enlisted. Their places were temporarily
filled. Otherwise the staff of the department has not been affected by the war.
The department sustained a loss during the year by the death of Mr. J.
Osborne, sanitary inspector. Mr. Osborne had been engaged as sanitary
inspector for 41 years, the last 30 of which had been spent in the service of
St. Pancras. The staff is still one inspector short by reason of this loss.
The routine inspection of houses in the Borough prescribed by the Housing,
Town Planning, etc., Act, 1909, has been continued during the year. A
number of underground rooms have been closed as sleeping placcs, and many
notices have been served for the provision of additional water supply to the
upper floors of tenement houses.
Two appeals were heard by the Local Government Board during the year
against your Council's action in regard to Closing Orders, and in both cases
the decision of the Council was upheld.
Perhaps the most serious problem in the Borough is the very unsatisfactory
conditions under which so many families have to live in tenement houses.
The evils arise from the letting out in floors of houses which were built, and
have conveniences, only for one family each.
Besides the insufficient number of rooms, many families having to do with
one or two rooms for all purposes, proper domestic management and cleanliness
are rendered almost impossible by the absence of separate kitchen, scullery,
food-storage, washing, water-closet and yard accommodation for each tenement.
It is the exception in such houses for a family to have any room which
is not used as a sleeping-place at night.
Throughout the year the department has been in negotiation with the
authorities of the St. Pancras Dispensary and University College Hospital,
and with the Local Government Board, the London County Council, and the
London Insurance Committee, in regard to the dispensary treatment of
tuberculous persons, but no final arrangements were come to by the end of the
year. No grants were made by the Council for this purpose during the year.