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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 Mile End Old Town.
(Ordered to be printed by the Public Health and Housing Committee.)
Dr. Hamer's inquiry into the sanitary condition and administration of the district of Mile End
Old Town was undertaken in compliance with the instruction of the Committee of the 31st of May,
that I should report on the sufficiency of the number of sanitary inspectors in that district, statements
in the annual report for the year 1893 of the Sanitary Committee of the Jewish Board of Guardians having
raised question as to the adequacy of the staff. Dr. Hamer's report shows that Mile End Old Town bears
favourable comparison in several particulars with Whitechapel, the district which was the subject of his
last report. Mile End Old Town is less crowded in respect both of houses and population; the number
of ill-arranged courts is much fewer than in Whitechapel, and the population generally is less poor.
Dr. Hamer refers to increase of the sanitary staff in Mile End Old Town in 1892 by the appointment
of an additional inspector and a clerk, and to the improvements which have since been effected ;
but he points out that as yet the sanitary authority have not seriously addressed themselves to the duty
of registering and regulating houses let in lodgings, or occupied by members of more than one family,
and that he does not think, without further increase of the staff, this work can be effectually carried out.
With this view I concur, and inasmuch as I learn the vestry has now under consideration the framing of
by-laws for this purpose in supersession of regulations made under the Sanitary Act of 1866, the question
of increase of the staff must necessarily be considered in connection with the enforcement of those by-laws.
Shirley F. Murphy,
Medical Officer of Health.

The rateable value of the district (1894) is £376,205, and the rates for the year 1893-4 amounted
to 6s. 6d. in the £. Under the London Equalisation of Rates Act, 1894, the amount to be credited to
the sanitary district will relieve the rates to the extent of about 7£d. in the £ annually.
It maybe noted that the number of persons per house in 1891, was 7.6, and the estimated population
and the number of persons to an acre in the middle of 1894,108,242 and 160 respectively. Generally
speaking, there is not in Mile End the same want of proportion between height of buildings and open
space about them which obtains in Whitechapel. There are again comparatively few dark confined and
ill ventilated courts, and there are, particularly in the north and east wards, a number of streets of
good residential houses. Curiously enough many fairly wide streets in Mile End terminate blindly,
and the existence of these cuts de sac is a serious defect in the laying out of portions of the district.
Mr. Charles Booth (Labour and Life of the People), remarks that Mile End Old Town " looks very clean
and new in spite of its name. Its streets, even the narrowest, look comparatively wide ; the air is fresh,
and the squares and other small open spaces are frequent."
Mr. Booth on applying his six tests to Mile End, found the numerical order in which the district
stands on the list of London registration districts * to be as follows—
17th, in respect of poverty.
12th ,, ,, domestic crowding.
4th „ ,, excess of young married females.
11th „ „ surplus unmarried males.
4th „ „ birth rate.
11th „ ,, death rate.
and 10th in the combined or mean order.
Mr. Booth comments upon the position of Mile End as above defined in regard to poverty, and
suspects that his result is " to some extent wrong." He adds, however, "Altogether it is undoubtedly
much the least poverty-stricken of East End districts, even if its position in this respect is here somewhat
exaggerated."
* Mr. Booth dealt with 27 districts. Of the 30 districts recognised by the Registrar-General he combined
three, viz., the Strand, St. Giles and Soho, and he omitted the City.
No. 200. Price 2d.
Sold by Edward Stanford, 26 and 27, Cockspurstreet Charing-cross, S.W.
[1922