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Court at Hammersmith, and the remaining hours at Wandsworth.
Whether attendance at the Home Court by a Magistrate from
10 to 4 daily, would suffice for the speedy and punctual administration
of justice is a question that time and experience only can
answer.
MORTUARY AND DISINFECTING CHAMBER.
A public mortuary is still among the sanitary desiderata in
Kensington, but negotiations are in progress the issue of which
will probably remove the opprobrium of so important a parish
being without a suitable temporary resting place for the dead —
alike for the convenience of poor parishioners by whom such
accommodation is greatly needed, and for the reception of the
bodies of unknown persons who may die or be killed in the
public streets. Hitherto in cases of sudden or accidental death
of unknown persons bodies have been deposited in the Workhouse
mortuary. This, however, is not a suitable place; and the use of
it, moreover, is objected to by the Board of Guardians. Several
years ago a Committee was appointed to give effect to the resolution
of your Vestry to provide a mortuary, but nothing came of
the labours of the Committee, as it was found impracticable to
obtain a site. There is one site, however, which has always
appeared to me superior to all others, viz., the disused
Parish Churchyard, at the rear of the Vestry Hall; and it is
highly satisfactory to me to know that the overtures which have
now at length been made by your Vestry to the Churchwardens
for a grant of that site, have been met by those gentlemen in a
public spirit, which encourages the hope that, if no unforeseen
obstacles should arise, we may hope before very long to see the
building of a mortuary taken in hand.
Though it scarcely falls within my province to advert to such a
topic, I have, nevertheless, ventured to urge the desirability of combining
with the mortuary suitable accommodation for the Coroner,
so as to obviate the disagreeable necessity under which that gentlemen
now lies of holding his court at public-houses. Should the
mortuary, however, be erected on the proposed site, it would
probably be deemed unnecessary to build a Court, for with two
public buildings—the existing and the proposed New Vestry
Hall, so closely adjacent, an arrangement could doubtless be
made to place a room at the disposal of the Coroner. In this case,
all that would be required in addition to two chambers for the dead
(one for ordinary cases and the other for infectious cases), would
be a convenient room for the use of medical men in making postmortem
examinations under the Coroner's order. Reference
having been made to "infectious cases," it is but right to mention
that the Churchwardens, properly anxious for the safety of the public
desired my opinion whether there would be any danger to persons