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in the garden of a house on the north side of Reidhaven-road on February 25th, showed the surface
layers to consist of "made ground," and at a depth of about 3 feet 6 inches below the yard level a
quantity of refuse was exposed. Crockery, pieces of wire, a tin box and ashes were found embedded
in black, earthy material, the mass consisting no doubt in the main of altered house refuse. An
examination was also made of the ground beneath the house. On removing the floor boards in the
front room, the surface layers were found to consist of clean sand; beneath this, about two feet down,
the sand became discoloured and gradually merged into a dark mass, looking not unlike dried gulley
slop, in which bits of crockery and a piece of tin were discovered. Samples of the material found in
the yard and of that obtained at different depths under the house itself were taken and forwarded to
the Council's chemist for examination, and his report is attached. There is no doubt that the ground
upon which this house was built consisted of house and street refuse.
The existing by-laws dealing with the foundations of sites and buildings were made in 1891,
the provisions which would be in force when most of the houses in the Reidhaven-road district were
built would be those in the by-laws made by the Metropolitan Board of Works in 1879.
These provisions are as follows—
"No house, building or other erection shall be erected upon any site or portion of a site which shall
have been filled up or covered with any material impregnated or mixed with any fœcal, animal or
vegetable matter, or with dust or slop, or other refuse, or in or upon which any such matter or refuse
shall have been deposited, unless and until such matter or refuse shall have been properly removed by
excavation or otherwise from such site. Any holes caused by such excavation must if not used for a
basement or cellar be filled in with hard brick or dry rubbish.
"The site of every house or building shall be covered with a layer of good concrete, at least six inches
thick, and smoothed on the upper surface, unless the site thereof be gravel sand or natural virgin soil."
The question as to the extent to which these requirements have been complied with obviously
to be further investigated, and if there are other houses upon the area in which conditions
obtain similar to those found to exist in the Gavin-street house and the Reidhaven-road house, it is
necessary that the ground should be in these cases covered with concrete, and that such further
precautions should be taken as may tend to minimise the evil influence of the polluted subsoil.
In connection with the question of subsoil pollution certain facts concerning the sewerage and
drainage of the area must be discussed. Dr. Davies in his special report on the district refers to the
difficulty experienced in draining it, owing to the fact that the ground lies so low, and it has been
pointed out that one of the two principal sewers in the district, the Reidhaven-road sewer, is liable
to heading back from the outfall when the latter is charged by storm water, which not infrequently
happens. Dr. Davies refers moreover to the silting up with deposit and to the insufficiency of
fall in a branch of the Glenside-road sewer and in the Reidhaven-road sewer. Further he states that
the "drains leading into these sewers appear to have been in many cases very badly made, with the
result that they frequently become stopped," and he adds that "a large number of defective drains
have been found when inspecting houses after infectious disease or house to house." "Altogether
between June 1st, 1895, and September 30th, 1896," Dr. Davies computes that "there have been
86 instances of choked water-closets and choked and defective drains," and he adds, "the result of
such defective drains and the frequent stoppage must be that the ground round the houses becomes
infiltrated with filth; and this is a more serious and lasting condition in a low-lying flat neighbourhood
than it would be on a slope. The prevalence of diarrhoea in this district is no doubt largely a
result of this condition of the soil."
The Public Health Committee of the Plumstead Vestry in a report on the health of the Reidhavenroad
district, dated 7th July, 1897, refer to the insufficiency of the London County Council's main
sewer. As regards local sewers, they state that certain portions of the Reidhaven-road sewer and of the
Hartville-road sewer have been taken up and re-laid since the date of the medical officer's report, and
with respect to drains, they state that a large number of defective combined drains have been dealt with.
Having regard to the statements as to the occurrence of flooding at times of heavy rainfall,
I made careful inquiry concerning this subject. It transpires that in the case of some of the
houses in the north-western part of the area, which have basements and backyards below the usual
level, there is liability after excessive rainfall to the collection of storm water in the areas in front of
such basements or in the backyards. Nos. 1 to 11 (odd) Reidhaven-road, Nos. 26, 28, and 30,
Reidhaven-road, and the houses at the northern end of Heverham-road on the west side, are, as far as
I have been able to learn, the only houses thus circumstanced. In these houses various expedients
have been adopted, such as the raising of the door sills, the insertion of a course of bricks round gulley
holes and the like, with the result that the water is prevented from entering the rooms. I was told
however, that in three of the houses above referred to water actually invaded the basement rooms
as recently as October, 1897, and in one of these houses, No. 11, Reidhaven-road, which lies at a
particularly low level, there was considerable flooding of the yard and greenhouse only a few days
before the date when I made my inspection. At the other end of the district in Marmadon-road, which
is at a somewhat lower level than Reidhaven-road, no flooding is experienced, but here there are no
basements, and further, this area is drained altogether independently of the Reidhaven-road sewer.
As regards the two main local sewers, it appears to be admitted that they are not self-cleansing. I
may quote the statements made by the surveyor to the vestry in his report upon Dr. Davies' report.
The surveyor thinks the Glenside-road sewer will be "the more self-cleansing" when more houses
drain into it; and he says "the Reidhaven-road sewer is not so self-cleansing as the Glenside-road,
but with ordinary flushing it is workable, and will be more so when the improvements to the outfall
works are carried out which I understand are now in progress."
As regards house drains, no drainage work was being executed during the period when I was
engaged in inspecting the district, and I am not able to estimate what proportion the defective drains
which have been re-constructed during recent years constitute of the total number of such drains
in the district. It is important to note, however, in connection with house drains, that the standard
applied to new drains is not a satisfactory one, inasmuch as the surveyor to the Plumstead Vestry,