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London County Council.
Public Health Department,
Spring Gardens, S.W.,
15th October, 1894.
Report by the Medical Officer on the Sanitary Condition and
Administration of Whitechapel.
(Ordered to be printed by the Public Health and Housing Committee.)
The Public Health and Housing Committee instructed me in May last to report on the statements
contained in the annual report for 1893 of the Sanitary Committee of the Jewish Board of
Guardians respecting the sanitary condition and administration of Whitechapel and Mile End. I
reported to the committee, and was instructed on May 31st to cause inquiry to be made as to the
sufficiency of the number of sanitary inspectors in those districts. A communication was addressed
by the clerk of the Council to the Whitechapel District Board, asking that Board to afford facilities to
one of the Council's assistant medical officers, Dr. Hamer, who was instructed to make the inquiry in
question. On June 14th a letter was received from the clerk of the Board stating that the matter had been
referred to the Board's medical officer, that he might give Dr. Hamer such assistance as he desired.
During June and July Dr. Hamer made inspection of the district, and he has now prepared the
appended report, which I present to the Committee.
Dr. Hamer's report discusses in some detail the character of the Whitechapel district, and he
shows that in respect of certain conditions the sanitary authority have greater difficulties to contend
with than the majority of London authorities. Whitechapel still has an exceptional number of
ill-arranged courts and alleys, notwithstanding that three improvement schemes (the Royal Mint-street
scheme, the Flower and Dean-street scheme and the Goulston-street scheme) have been carried out by
the Metropolitan Board of Works under the Artizans' and Labourers' Dwellings Improvement Acts.
The district, moreover, contains a poor population, the results of an inquiry by Mr. Charles Booth in
1887 placing Whitechapel seventh in order of poverty in his list of London registration districts.
Further evidence of the poverty of Whitechapel is afforded by the fact that the district has
a relatively large proportion of its population living in one and two roomed tenements, viz.,
18.2 per cent. and 26.5 per cent. respectively. In other particulars its condition is altogether
exceptional. It is the district of London to which alien immigrants especially resort, and it contains a
number of workshops considerably above the average of the rest of London. Under these circumstances
the need for a strong sanitary staff is obvious, but compared with other districts which more nearly
approach to it in the character of the population and the condition of houses, the sanitary staff of
Whitechapel is, notwithstanding recent increase, numerically weak. Dr. Hamer found much evidence
of excellent work effected by the medical officer of health and the sanitary inspectors, but his report conclusively
shows that the existing staff is unable sufficiently to cope with the conditions which exist in
Whitechapel.
The district much needs improvement in two directions—the removal of unhealthy houses in
localities where ill-arrangement is conspicuous among the conditions demanding remedy, and
the institution of a more complete system of inspection such as will ensure for the poorer parts a
periodical remedy of defects which occur from time to time in houses occupied in the manner of Whitechapel
houses. With respect to the latter, it may be pointed out that the powers given by the Public
Health (London) Act for the registration and regulation of houses let in lodgings would, if the staff of
inspectors were large enough, do much to raise the sanitary standard of houses of this class. The need,
moreover, of regular inspection of workshops is made evident by Dr. Hamer's inquiry, and further
indicates the necessity for the employment of a larger number of sanitary inspectors.
Shirley F. Murphy,
Medical Officer o f Health.
Dr. Hamer's report.
The area under the jurisdiction of the Whitechapel Board of Works comprises all but a very
small part of the civil parish of Whitechapel, and eight other civil parishes, liberties, &c., and is nearly
conterminous with the registration district of Whitechapel. It should be noted, however, that the Tower
of London is "deemed to be in the Whitechapel district for purposes of registration of births,
marriages, and deaths, but is said to form no part of the board of works district." Hence from the
population returned as belonging to Whitechapel registration district (74,462 at the 1891 census), the
populations of the Tower and of the small part of the civil parish of Whitechapel above referred to