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London County Council.
REIDHAVEN ROAD DISTRICT, PLUMSTEAD.
Report by the Medical Officer of Health, presenting report by Dr. Hamer, Assistant
Medical Officer of Health, as to the condition of the Reidhaven-road district,
Plumstead.
(Printed by order of the Public Health Committee, 17th February, 1898.)
Public Health Department,
Spring-gardens,
February, 1898.
The attention of the Public Health Committee of the Council was, at the end of 1896, directed
to a group of streets in the east of Plumstead referred to as the "Reidhaven-road district," the complaint
alleging inter alia that the inhabitants of the houses in these streets, and especially children,
suffered from an abnormally high death rate as compared with the inhabitants of Plumstead as a whole.
The Vestry of Plumstead were communicated with, and the Council eventually had under consideration
a report on these streets contained in the annual report for the year 1896 of Dr. Davies, the medical
officer of health of Plumstead. Further communications had in the meantime been received by the
Committee, and the Committee decided, in November, 1897, that Dr. Hamer should personally inspect
the "Reidhaven-road district" and report thereon. The Plumstead Vestry having expressed their
willingness to give Dr. Hamer every facility for this purpose the inspection was made, and I now
present Dr. Hamer's report.
Dr. Hamer found that the houses in the streets in question had been constructed within the last
fifteen years, that some of them had been built on a site the level of which had been raised by the
deposit of refuse material, including house refuse, and that a much smaller number were liable to
flooding at times of heavy rainfall. Conditions of even more serious import were those of overcrowding
and dirt. About half the houses inspected were found to be occupied by more than one family, and
these conditions were found more especially in houses thus inhabited. The Committee will no doubt
desire to refer to the Main Drainage Committee the references in Dr. Hamer's report to faulty
sewerage. The question raised as to the character of the subsoil beneath some of the houses and the
condition of dampness that was found in a certain number, should lead the sanitary authority to take
measures for covering the site of such houses with concrete. Especially, however, should the attention
of the sanitary authority be directed to the necessity of dealing with overcrowding, and of enforcing
the cleansing of rooms and passages. They should furthermore adopt the method of testing new
drains recommended by their medical officer.
In the cases of houses occupied by members of more than one family, the desired results could
be most readily obtained by the regulation of such houses under section 94 of the Public Health
(London) Act. As yet no greater number of houses in Plumstead than some half dozen, has been
at any one time under regulation. It has been proposed to register other houses, but this resolution
was not persevered with, the owners having undertaken not to allow the houses to be occupied by
members of more than one family. Dr. Hamer's report shows how little dependence can be placed on
such promises, and it is obvious that the houses in the "Reidhaven-road district" thus occupied should
be regulated without delay.
Appended to Dr. Hamer's report is that of Dr. Clowes, on the results of his examination of
samples of soil which were submitted to him.
Shirley F. Murphy,
Medical Officer of Health.
Dr. Hamer's Report.
The Reidhaven-road district* comprises fourteen streets, consisting almost exclusively of two-storey
houses which have been built within the last fifteen years. The streets are forty feet in width, there is a
fair amount of open space at the rear of the houses, and with one exception there is an entire absence of
culs de sac giving access to buildings erected upon back land. And yet from another point of view the
whole group of streets must be regarded as being practically a large triangular cul de sac, shut in by the
railway line, which bounds the district on the north, and by land, for the most part unbuilt upon, which
extends beyond the eastern limit of the fourteen streets. The only approach to the district in ordinary
use is from the south, from the High-street, which, joining the district at its south-eastern extremity,
runs west-north-west from that point in the direction of Plumstead-station, ever tending to approach
nearer to the railway and ultimately crossing under the line, and thus joining the northern boundary at the
* Thus defined by Dr. Davies—" North of High-street and west of Bannockburn-road, including the
14 streets Reidhaven-road, Gavin-street, Heverham-road, Abery-street, Gunning-street, White Hart-lane,
Garibaldi-street, Kentmere-road, Barth-road, Hartville-road, Mabyn-road, Bateson-street, Marmadon-road (to
24 and 67), and Glenside-road.
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