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Right Honourable The Lord Mayor, had the following aims —
(a) To show City workers and residents why they should reduce the noise which assailed
them and the methods by which this could be done;
(b) To assist employers in increasing the efficiency of the City worker by reducing the
noise in which he worked; and
(c) To examine the various types of response to the campaign literature with a view to
assessing the relative value of future noise abatement work.
A report on the campaign was submitted by the Port and City of London Health Committee to
the Court of Common Council and received national and international press and radio coverage, as
a result of which several most useful links have been forged with other agencies at home and
abroad concerned with the same work.
COMMON LODGING HOUSES
This Department has been closely involved in the problems which have arisen during the year
at the Salvation Army Hostel in Middlesex Street. Close supervision by this Department has been
necessary because acceptable standards of personal hygiene are not maintained by the inmates.
The Salvation Army authorities have found it either impossible or unacceptable to impose better
standards on their occupants. This absence of personal hygiene on the part of some lodgers has
brought about severe infestations of lice in recent years, and the year under review has been no
exception.
It is inevitable that the plight of those who find it necessary to use this type of accommodation
will receive increasing publicity. Whilst there is general concern that such premises should
be improved, so long as they remain in use the problems facing the Keeper will compel this
Department not to relax its efforts.
Vermin infestation in the form of lice presents the biggest problem. Lice are introduced into
the premises by the casual overnight lodger who, especially on warmer nights, sleeps rough, and
a reservoir of infestation is set up in the regular occupants, who pick up these insects and who
are not sufficiently regular in their bathing and washing habits.
Regular early morning inspections of beds have been carried out. On one occasion 40 beds
out of 82 were found to be infested with vermin and this convinced the Salvation Army authorities
of the gravity of the situation. It is inevitable that for the time being systematic inspections
of bedding will have to be continued. The van purchased for the purpose of transporting
verminous men and articles has proved invaluable. It has enabled a large quantity of bedding to
be reliably disinfested and has promoted a greater zest for cleanliness on the part of hostel
workers.
Following discussions between this Department and the local and headquarters staff of the
Salvation Army, mechanical cleaning equipment has been provided and its use soon proved its
worth. There was a noticeable and rapid improvement in the state of cleanliness of the wooden
floors.
The personal cleanliness aspect cannot be over-stressed where lice are involved. This
objectionable vermin will persist while men go unbathed for weeks on end and remain in their
same clothing day and night. It would certainly seem that each man should be provided with
personal locker accommodation for his clothing and as a condition of tenancy be required to have a
weekly bath. For the most part men keep all their personal belongings on themselves.
These premises can be compared to army barracks, but without the accompanying discipline
of personal and corporate hygiene. Finally, it may be said that the problem is not only one of
beds and lice but of unfortunate men who for various reasons have to make such premises their
home.
OFFICES, SHOPS AND RAILWAY PREMISES ACT, 1963
During the year under review (1969) much time and energy has been devoted, among other
things, to the problem of ventilation in order to secure compliance with the provisions of Section
7 of the Act of 1963.
Inquiries made at various office blocks support the view that in the basic designs of the
mechanical ventilating systems of office blocks, tall or squat, priority is given to the control of
temperature in the spaces used as offices. Therefore, some ventilation systems are primarily
heat control units, certain ventilating factors being introduced secondary to the basic heat control
design. As such designs have different methods of control resulting from the different priorities
given to economy, heat control and ventilation by prospective owners and architects, the problems
to be dealt with in heat loss and gain from a variety of types of building and construction are
dealt with differently by various heating and ventilating engineers,,
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