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London County Council.
Public Health Department,
Spring Gardens, S.W.,
3rd October, 1895.
Report by the Medical Officer, submitting report by Dr. Hamer on.
the Sanitary Condition and Administration of the Parish of
Lambeth.
(Ordered by the Public Health, &c., Committee to be printed on 14th October, 1895.)
In presenting Dr. Hamer's Report on the sanitary condition and administration of Lambeth, I
may make a few observations.
Dr. Hamer shows that for a proper understanding of the requirements of the district it is necessary
to bear in mind that it is not homogeneous, that, in fact, broadly speaking, two separate areas have to be
considered, differing widely from each other in respect of population and in respect of sanitary
circumstances. Of these areas the southern, which is the larger, is occupied by a population living
under conditions of comparative comfort; the northern, which is the smaller, is occupied by a much
poorer population, whose conditions demand an active sanitary supervision.
The population of the northern part of the district is about 85,000, and it may be well to learn
the number of staff employed in other districts of London which are comparable with it.
If the census figures relating to "overcrowding"* of tenements of one to four rooms be referred
to, it will be found that the northern area of Lambeth (with 31.75 per cent. of its population living under
conditions of overcrowding "in tenements of one to four rooms) occupies a position intermediate
between St. Giles and the Strand on the one hand (with corresponding percentages of 29*8 and
30.95 respectively), and St. Saviour and St. George-the-Martyr on the other (with corresponding percentages
of 32'37 and 33.59 respectively). On referring to returns as to the sanitary inspectors in the
several districts of the Administrative County of London, which have been made by medical officers of
health, I find the number of inhabitants to each sanitary inspector in these several districts does not
exceed 15,000.
The northern part of Lambeth comprises the whole of one inspector's district with about
60,000 inhabitants, and a part of a second inspector's district with about 50,000 inhabitants.
The number of inhabitants per sanitary inspector is therefore in this northern area upwards of
50,000, or more than three times as many as in the districts referred to.
In view of the smallness of the staff of sanitary inspectors, it is not matter for surprise that
Dr. Hamer's report contains ample evidence of the results of lax administration, manifested in the
overcrowding which he found in numerous tenements, and in the neglected condition of houses occupied
by poor persons. These conditions, it will be observed, were especially conspicuous in the northern
area, but the southern area also presented much evidence of want of supervision.
A complete rearrangement of the sanitary administration is undoubtedly needed to remedy
these evils, and a sufficient staff must be provided to deal with the unwholesome conditions which
abundantly exist throughout the district, and especially with the prevention of overcrowding which is
more marked in the northern area.
With an adequate staff it would be possible for the authority to undertake what it has not hitherto
seriously attempted, a house-to-house inspection throughout the district, and it would then be possible
to regulate by by-law those houses let in lodgings for which this greater power of control is necessary,
and to obtain the information which is required for the effectual supervision of workshops.
Dr. Hamer also directs attention to certain areas for which there is no effectual remedy
but reconstruction and rearrangement. Certain of these have already been brought to the knowledge
of the Council, especially Salutation-place and Peers-cooperage.
Among other points discussed in Dr. Hamer's report, I may especially direct attention to the
need of providing a second disinfecting station and a shelter or shelters for the accommodation of
persons compelled to leave their dwellings for the purpose of enabling such dwellings to be disinfected.
Shirley F. Murphy,
Medical Officer of Health.
* The word "overcrowding" is here used in the same sense as in the census report, viz., as applying to
tenements in which the proportion of inmates to rooms is more than two.
Sold by Edward Stanford, 26 and 27, Cockspur-street, Charing-cross, S. W.
No. 266.—Price 3d. [5425