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Report of the County Medical Officer—General. 97
Cheap and free food.—Last winter the distribution of cheap and free food was carried on to a
very much less extent than in former years and at the time of writing this report the practice has not
been revived. The inauguration of the Embankment scheme of the Metropolitan Asylums Board has,
as a matter of course, imposed restriction upon this form of charity, inasmuch as its continuance would
have rendered the scheme impracticable. Medland Hall, too, has discontinued the giving of tickets
for bread and margarine. The Euston-road Soup Kitchen, founded some 65 years ago, still supplies
many thousands of cheap and free meals. The Field-lane Refuge and Ham-yard Hospice provide free
meals to individuals and families all the year round. Several charitable agencies provide single
meals, such as tea or dinner, but generally the distribution of food on a large scale, referred to in the
reports for 1911 and 1912, has now ceased.
I append the following tables summarising the information obtained on the night of the 24th
October, 1913:—
Table I. shows the number of homeless persons found in streets and on staircases, and their distribution
in sanitary areas.
Table II. shows the authorised accommodation in common lodging houses, the number of beds
occupied, and the number of beds vacant in the City of London and in each metropolitan
borough.
Table III. shows the free accommodation in shelters provided by philanthropic bodies, and licensed
by the Council, but does not include the beds in ordinary common lodging houses
occupied by persons, on the night of the census, whose accommodation was paid for by
charitable organisations.
Table IV. shows the accommodation in shelters not licensed as common lodging houses.
Table V. summarises the information contained in the second and third paragraphs of the report, and
shows the total number of persons who might be regarded as homeless on the ground of
being unable to pay for a bed, but does not include persons permanently provided for
in public institutions.
W. H. Hamer,
Medical Officer of Health.
6th November, 1913.

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