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annual report of
the medical officer of health
for the year 1925.
To the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor, Aldermen and Commons of the Corporation of London
Public Health Department,
Guildhall, E.C.
2nd February, 1926.
My Lord Mayor and Gentlemen,
I beg to present herewith the report of the Medical Officer of Health for the Corporation
of the City of London for the year 1925.
QUINQUENNIAL SURVEY OF HEALTH CONDITIONS IN THE CITY.
The memorandum issued by the Ministry of Health referring to annual reports of Medical
Officers of Health suggests that the present report shall contain a section dealing with the
progress made during the past five years. The idea of a quinquennial survey is an excellent
one as it enables a stock-taking of health work to be attempted and, incidentally, enables
activities to be adjusted. Interests differ in various areas, dependent on local circumstances,
and the City perhaps as an administrative entity is peculiar.
MATTERS OF GENERAL INTEREST.
Avoidance of objectionable accumulations.—On what is known as "the square mile"
there are only some 13,000 inhabitants, but somewhat less than half-a-million workers daily
enter the area to perform duties which a concentration of businesses has rendered necessary.
These workers may be regarded as the fixed day population but, in addition, there must be
at least an equal number regularly proceeding to the City as casual visitors for one reason
or another.
To accommodate these numbers it is obvious that every spare inch of land has been
utilised to the fullest extent and although most thoroughfares are reasonably wide the
connecting lateral streets are very narrow, and in some places are little more than passages
or alley-ways. Certain outstanding essentials must necessarily be observed. The streets
require to be of impervious material retaining as little dirt as possible and the surface of
these streets must be kept in an almost irreproachable condition. Without this attention
the accumulations of dirt, the result of the daily influx of people, of traffic, of refuse accumulations
and similar unavoidable circumstances, would provide a factor dangerous to health.
It is not necessary to give figures in this part of the report, but, as Medical Officer of
Health, I have to express a word of satisfaction in the way the streets are kept. The chief
criticism, and it is one which has been considered by your Committee, has reference to the
removal of refuse. This continues until a rather later hour in the morning than is desirable.
Night removal of refuse is almost impracticable in view of the fact that the majority of City
premises are lock-up places and the refuse is not available until office cleaners arrive in the
morning. The few hours, therefore, which are available for refuse disposal make it almost
impracticable for the work to be completed by 9 a.m. An important step has been taken
by the decision of the Corporation to require, by byelaw, that all refuse be stored in impervious
metal bins, provided with lids. This requirement is of recent date and no great advance
had yet been made in respect of this general provision. It indicates, however, one of the
future activities.
The control of the daily food supply.—The large number of persons coming into the City
requires to be fed. The business premises are not, except in a few instances, sufficiently large
to justify firms making catering provision on the premises. In some instances this is provided
and in a manner which is practically beyond reproach. The workers at these establishments
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