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4
Town Hall,
Euston Road, N.W.1.
June, 1947.
To the Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors of the
Metropolitan Borough of St. Pancras.
Your Worship, Ladies and Gentlemen,
In the contents of this report upon the conditions of health and sanitation in the Metropolitan
Borough of St. Pancras during the year 1946 will be found statistical tables and detailed
information. In these opening remarks, therefore, I propose to summarise some of the matters
that have received our special attention, and to give some indication of the lines upon which
our work should be conducted in the future.
I have no hesitation in directing my first comment towards the environmental conditions
under which the residents of the borough are living. In these days of large plans for improved
services for the treatment of the sick it is very easy to lose sight of the fact that it is the food
which the people eat and the houses in which they live that are of far more immediate importance
than the hospitals and social services that will be provided to treat the diseases which can arise if
food, housing and environment generally are inadequate or unsatisfactory. Environmental
hygiene is of paramount importance in this country, which is still suffering acutely from the
ravages of war. Modern warfare no longer means the enrichment of the victor at the expense
of the vanquished, nor the procession of cartloads of booty before cheering crowds. To win a
war is no longer sufficient, for when this is achieved problems almost as severe and grim have
still to be faced if the country is to regain the amenities of pre-war days.
Sanitary Defects.
The size of the problem with which we have to contend can be measured from the number
of complaints of sanitary defects in houses in the borough. This number was 5,689. The number
of houses in the borough is approximately 18,000. This means that in 31 per cent. of the houses
in the borough there was a sanitary defect for which the residents had to seek the help of the
Public Health Department to overcome a nuisance dangerous or injurious to health ; and to
deal with these complaints no less than 16,663 inspections were made. In nearly every case the
complaint was justified and needed a remedy. Admittedly in some the sanitary defect referred
to a small item amounting to inconvenience and was easily remedied, but in many the defects
were acute and serious. It is sometimes difficult to appreciate a condition when large numbers
are mentioned. It is easier to understand the misery that lies behind one individual complaint
than the mass of suffering occasioned by 5,689. An illustration of this is easily found if one
considers a frequent complaint from a tenant that his roof is leaking. This often means inability
to use one or more of the few rooms available to him and his family—it means damp clothes,
damp bedding and an acutely miserable existence. When one multiplies cases of this description
to the extent to which they exist in this borough one gets a truer picture of the value of the
work of the Sanitary Inspector and the extent to which he can and does help the public.