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Town Hall,
Euston Road,
London, N.W.I.
September, 1959
To the Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors of the
Metropolitan Borough of Saint Pancras.
Your Worship, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have pleasure in presenting my annual report for the year 1958. This is
the 15th' report on the health of the Borough of St. Pancras which it has been my
privilege to prepare.
Population
The population in the middle of the year, as estimated by the Registrar
General, was 130,800, as compared with 132,000 in 1957. At the census in 1951,
the population was 138,377. There has therefore been a steady decrease in the
residential population of the borough. The census also showed that 84,105 persons
entered the Borough daily to work or to study. This means that the Council is
responsible for a population of 222,482. Members of the Council will be aware
of the extent of commercial development in the Borough in the last seven years,
and I have no doubt that the number of individuals for which the Council is now
responsible exceeds this figure considerably. This influx of population which is
common to Central London boroughs, calls for additional work in connection with
factory and food hygiene.
Food Hygiene
I have called attention to the fact that the presence of three main line
termini in the Borough is associated with the receipt in St. Pancras of large
quantities of food, much of which is stored in the vicinity of the stations prior
to widespread distribution. It is not surprising, therefore, that your Public
Health Department must ensure that the majority of its Public Health Inspectors
are experts in the hygiene of food, i. e. that they hold the Meat and Other Poods
certificate of the Royal Society of Health.
Supervision is inadequate without the co-operation of all those concerned
in the food trade and, by and large, this co-operation has been forthcoming
throughout the years I have been Medical Officer of Health to the Borough.
It would be unrealistic if I were to say that the conditions are satisfactory
in all respects. They are not, for St. Pancras is an old Borough containing much
out-moded property. In many cases we rely on improvement and improvisation rather
than demolition and new construction.
Many of the restaurants are owned and managed by persons whose residence in
England has not been of long standing. We have found them willing to learn and
to improve their premises in accordance with our requests and our teaching.
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