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BOROUGH OF SHOREDITGH
ANNUAL REPORT of the MEDICAL OFFICER of HEALTH.
PUBLIC HEALTH DEPARTMENT,
TOWN HALL,
OLD STREET, e.C.,
January, 1901.
To the Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors of the Metropolitan Borough of Shoreditch.
GENTLEMEN,
In submitting my annual Report on the public health, sanitary condition and
vital statistics of Shoreditch for the year ending December 31st, 1900—the last year
of the existence of the Shoreditch Vestry—I venture to think that it will not be
unappropriate to briefly refer to some of the main features of the public health work
carried out in Shoreditch during the 45 years that the administration of local affairs
was in the hands of the Vestry of the Parish of St Leonard, Shoreditch. It can
with justice be claimed from past records that a very large amount of money, time
and labour have b:en expended in improving the sanitary condition of the district and
promoting the comfort, convenience and health of the people ; more especially has this
been the case during the last 12 or 15 years. It may be stated generally that a great
deal of improvement has been effected as regards the dwellings of the people of
Shoreditch; many are the unhealthy houses which have disappeared to make
way for dwellings constructed in accordance with sanitary principles, and it can now
be said that a large proportion are most excellent from a sanitary point of view.
When the Vestry of Shoreditch in 1856 took over the duty of looking after the sanitary
welfare of the district most of the houses were drained into cosspools; such sewers
and drains as existed, were usually faulty in their construction and very defective ; at
the present time cesspools are comparatively seldom met with, and Shoreditch
generally, may be regarded as a district having good sewers and good drains >