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wages of 14s. and 24s. per week respectively, without sick pay ; whilst at the latter 10 women (and
girls) and 6 men (and a boy) at average respective wages of 14s. and 24s. per week, without sick pay.
At these two yards in Tinworth-street the refuse sorting is under a sub-contract. The Strand Board
of Works has recently erected a Horsfall destructor on their wharf (Shot-tower) for the destruction
(by burning) of refuse. It remains to be seen if any nuisance arises in connection with the working of
such a destructor.
By degrees the system of disposing of refuse by burning it in a destructor is being adopted
in London, and the following sanitary authorities have now provided themselves with
destructors, in which the whole or a part of the house refuse produced in their districts is
destroyed—Fulham, Hampstead, St. Pancras, St. Luke, the City, Shoreditch, WEtechapel,
Poplar, Battersea, and Woolwich. The Strand authority also has a destructor in Lambeth, which
is on probation; the Lewisham authority has for some time burnt refuse in a destructor which is
now not in use; the Clerkenwell authority has a two-cell furnace in which certain parts of the
refuse are burnt; the Hackney authority has a destructor in process of construction, the heat
from which will be used in connection with the provision of electric light.
Nuisance from sewers.
But few references to nuisance from sewer ventilators are made in the annual reports of
medical officers of health. In Kensington, the medical officer writes—" Complaints were received
from different parts of the borough of stinks which were usually traced to the presence of
untrapped street gullies or sewer ventilators in the roadway. The offending apertures were in
connection with sewers under the jurisdiction of the County Council and the borough council
alike. The worst spot, perhaps, was that in Warwick-road, where there is a large circular
ventilator to the Counter's-creek sewer, near to the entrance to the Earl's-court Exhibition,
which has proved the subject of many complaints at different periods of the year, even when the
exhibition has not been open. This subject has been referred to in several previous reports, but
no effectual remedy of general application has been found for the nuisance."
In my last report I stated the steps taken by the Council in connection with the flooding of
houses from sewers. The only references to this subject in the annual reports of medical officers
of health are made in the reports relating to Fulham and Kensington. In Fulham the flooding
of the basements in the neighbourhood of Field-road, owing to the inadequacy of the County
Council's main sewer, was again brought under the notice of the Council. In Kensington past
occurrences of flooding of basements in numerous houses and the inefficiency of the Counter screek
sewer are mentioned.
Nuisance from the Regent's-canal.
A serious nuisance emanating from the Regent's canal was experienced at the end of
July in St. Pancras. Following heavy rain occurring during the hot weather of July, and after
the disturbance of the water from the fall of a building consequent upon a fire, a strong and most
offensive odour was produced, the smell, resembling that of sulphuretted hydrogen, extending to
a considerable distance. Complaints were received by the Council, and inquiry into the occurrence
was made by Dr. Young on behalf of the Council, and on receipt of his report the Public
Health Committee reported to the Council as follows—
On July 29th, 30th and 31st complaints were made to the Council by residents in the
neighbourhood of Regent's-park as to serious nuisance arising from Regent's-canal, the water in
which was stated to be in a very foul condition. Inspection of the canal by Dr. Young was made
on July 31st, and it was found that the complaints were well founded, the water in the canal above
Chalk Farm-road, in Regent's-park, and in the Collateral Cut leading to Cumberland basin being
inky black in colour and very offensive. Bubbles of gas were being copiously emitted from the water,
and dead fish were floating on the surface. Samples of the water were taken. A communication
was made on August 1st to the Regent's Canal and Dock Company as to the serious nuisance which
existed, and a copy was at the same time sent to the Vestry of St. Pancras. The secretary of the
canal company replied on August 2nd that, as soon as the company became aware of the
nuisance steps were taken " to change the water as quickly as possible by allowing it to
flow down into the lower levels of the canal," and that at the time of writing "295 locks, equal to
15,930,000 gallons of water," had been let down.
The reply also contained the following statement—" The company use their best endeavours to
keep the water in a proper sanitary condition, and I am glad to say that usually they are successful
in so doing, but unfortunately for them a fire occurred at the London and North Western Railway
Company's goods depot during the night of Wednesday, July 25th, 1900, and a quantity of liquid
and material was allowed to get from the premises into the adjacent dock of the railway company,
and so pass into the canal. The effect of this had been to decompose the canal water, causing it
to smell very badly and to assume a dark colour." The Vestry of St. Pancras replied on August 3rd,
stating that on 31st July, " intimation notices were issued and served on the Regent's Canal and
Dock Company as well as the London and North Western Railway Company, requiring the abatement
of the nuisance arising from the present condition of the Regent's-canal, and that in consequence of
non-compliance therewith statutory notices were issued and served upon the 2nd instant on the
companies referred to, and a report has been made to the effect that the canal company is taking
measures for dealing with the matter." It was added in this letter that "in all probability the
present condition of the canal is due to the recent fire at the goods depot of the London and North
Western Railway Company, Chalk-farm," and that steps were being taken to dam off from the
canal a dock belonging to the railway company .
In the meantime inspection was made daily of the canal, and the conditions found by one of
the Council's inspectors were as follows—
On August 1st—In Cumberland-basin at the end of the Collateral Cut, which is a dead
end off the main waterway of the canal, the water was very black and foul-smelling. In that
portion of the canal along Albert-road as far as St. Mark's Church, where the Collateral Cut
commences, the water had regained its normal condition, while from St. Mark's Church downwards
to High-street, Camden-town, the water was very foul and offensive.
On August 2nd—The water at "Camden" locks and in the part of the canal below was veryfoul.
The pollution had reached as far down as New North-road-bridge, Islington, and at the
lower opening of the tunnel through which the canal passes, a large number of dead fish were
seen floating on the surface.
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