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Town Hall,
Euston Road,
London, N.W.I.
September, 1964
To the Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors of the
Metropolitan Borough of St. Pancras.
Your Worship, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have pleasure in submitting to you my Annual Report on the health, vital
statistics and sanitary circumstances of the Metropolitan Borough of St. Pancras
for the year 1963. In accordance with the request of the Minister of Health, the
report is presented in the same general form as has been done for some years past.
This year has been, in the main, an uneventful one in the Department with
nothing occurring to give rise to anxiety regarding the health of the Borough. It
has, however, been a year of steady progress, particularly in the Housing Rehabilitation
Scheme and the fields of Health Education and Care of the Aged.
This, the sixty-third Annual Report of the Medical Officer of Health is the
last one to be published during the Borough's existence, for when the final report
appears next year, St. Pancras will no longer have separate identity.
The first Annual Report (a copy of which still exists) was made by Dr. T.
Hiller, Medical Officer of Health to the Vestry, in 1857, the first report to the
Council of the then new Borough being made by Dr. J. Sykes in 1900. His report
commences with a list of his staff and bears a striking resemblance to the organisation
of the Department today, the only two unfamiliar officers being that of the attendant
at the Family Shelter (which was used for temporary accommodation for people whilst
their rooms were being fumigated) and the post of messenger then tilled by 'Downes',
who did not achieve the dignity of any initials at all.
The population of St. Pancras was 243,076 and that year they enjoyed rather
warmer, drier weather than was usual. Infectious disease exercised the Medical
Officer of Health considerably, there being 7 non.fatal cases of smallpox and 356
of typoid fever, with 63 deaths, the latter being comparable in incidence with
the recent Aberdeen outbreak in which, however, only one person died. Five-hundred
and eighty-five cases of diphtheria caused 71 deaths and 123 children died of measles
Dr. Sykes feeling strongly that this disease should be made notifiable.
In addition to action in respect of individual houses, the Housing of the
Working Classes Act of 1890 was used for rehabilitation of Prospect Terrace, Brantome
Place and part of Somerstown, whilst an early example of noise abatement was reflected
by a London County Council bye-law having regard to noisy animals, Dr. Sykes noting
that this might be of use in actions against the owners of noisy fowls. Further
evidence of rural pursuits in St. Pancras is the fact that 17 cow houses, containing
nearly 300 cows, were licensed by the Council that year, whilst reports by the
analyst of some of the milk samples examined make horrifying reading today.
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