Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for London County Council]
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The second floor front room is rented at 4s. per week, and it is occupied for living and sleeping purposes by
two adults and one child. An ordinary iron bucket is used for fetching the water from the tap in the basement, and
water is stored in a large jug in the room. About six gallons of water are required each day, and this necessitates at
least three journeys to the basement and the carrying of 60 pounds of water up three flights of stairs, to a height of
about 30 feet. Almost a like quantity of waste water has to be taken to the basement, which contains the only
fittings available for disposing of waste water.
The second floor back room is let at a rental of 3s. per week to a man, wife and young child. About four
gallons of water are used in this tenement, and a tucket is kept specially for the purpose of obtaining the water from
the basement and storing it in the living and sleeping apartment.
There are two water-closets for the use of the tenants, but both are in the yard at the basement level. The
only sinks for waste water are at the basement level.
Two of the single room tenements are without ovens in connection with the fire grates provided for the
purpose of cooking food.
There are cupboards at the side of the fireplaces in some of the rooms, but none are suitable for the storage of
food, being without vontilation to the external air.
no. B, clrencester-street.
The front and back rooms on the basement floor are occupied by one family, consisting of a man, wife and four
children, and are let at a rental of 6s. 6d. per week. The ground floor consists of a three-roomed tenement rented
at 7s. 6d. per week, and occupied by a man, his wife and five children, two being over 10 years of age.
The two rooms on the first floor are separately occupied for living and sleeping purposes by two families,
each consisting of two adults and two children ; the rent of the front room is 4s. 6d. per week.
The top floor front room is a single room tenement occupied by three adults at a rental of 4s. per W6ek.
Water is stored in the living and sleeping apartment in a bucket; about six gallons are said to be required daily for
use in the room, and this has to be brought from the tap at the basement level, necessitating at least three
journeys up and down three flights of stairs—including the somewhat dark basement flight—numbering 51 steps,
a vertical height of about 30 feet. The total weight of the water which is carried daily to this room is about
60 pounds.
The top floor back room is separately occupied by a man, his wife and a boy 14 years of age ; the weekly rent of
the room is 3s. About ten gallons of water are said to be used by the occupants, and this quantity has to be carried
up 30 feet, as described in connection with the front room.
no. c, clrencester-street.
The front basement room is separately occupied for living and sleeping purposes by two adults and two
children at a rental of 3s. 6d. per week. There are two cupboards in the room, but both are without ventilation to
the external air. There is no oven provided for cooking food.
The back basement room is also separately occupied. The ground floor rooms, three in number, are
occupied by one family consisting of man, wife and four children, at a rental of 6s. 6d. per week.
There are two single-room tenements on the first floor, the back room is occupied by a man, his wife and
two children at a rental of 3s. per week. A small bucket is used for the storage of water in the room, about eight
gallons are used daily, and four return journeys to the tap in the basement, in each instance down 20 feet, i.e. 32
steps, are needed to bring the water to the tenement. The front room is similarly occupied, and approximately
the same conditions as to water supply obtain for that room.
The top floor rooms are occupied by a family consisting of a man, wife and four children; about six gallons
of water have to be brought from the basement, 30 feet below, for use in the tenement.
The following diagram shows the height to which water has to be carried by the occupants of the various
floors in a house of the type shown in the preceding diagram :—
A bare recital of the weights of water used and the heights in feet through which they need
to be carricd conveys but a meagre idea of the hardship inflicted upon the tenement population of
London under existing couditions as to water supply. One of the most serious questions, from a
health point of view, is the tendency to limitation of use of water which these conditions of necessity