View report page

160
A certain amount of information was received from the
two clergymen, indicating positions in which it was thought
that instances of overcrowding, or of sanitary defects, might
be found to exist. But it was again made manifest, from the
general tone of the communications, that it was the character
of the inhabitants of the locality which, in the opinion of the
writers, lay at the root of the evils complained of. Admission,
moreover, was frankly made that much had already been done
by your Vestry for the sanitary improvement of the district.
The Committee made two careful inspections of the
District and subsequently reported to your Vestry as follows:
" Your Committee beg to report that they held a Special. Meeting at the Town
Mall on Thursday, March 2nd, 1893, to consider the articles and
correspondence which appeared recently in the Daily News under the
heading 'A West-End A vermis.' The Rev. Dr. Williamson, Vicar of
St. James5 Norland, the Rev. C. E. T. Roberts, Incumbent of St.
Clement's, Notting Dale, Mr. F. C. Frye, M.P., and Mr. John Lloyd, L.C.C.
had been invited to attend, and to accompany your Committee in their
proposed inspection of the district referred to, which includes William
Street, Bangor Street, Crescent Street, and parts of St. Clement's Road
and St. Katherine's Road. Mr. Frye and Mr. Lloyd accepted the
invitation, and were present, and also took part in the subsequent inspection
of the district.
The complaints set forth in the articles and letters had reference to alleged
structural and sanitary defects and overcrowding of the houses; to the
immorality, drunkenness, and general bad behaviour of the inhabitants of
the district, and to the excessive number of public-houses therein. It is
hardly necessary to observe that your Vestry have no jurisdiction with
respect to public-house accommodation, and that the character and habits
of the people can only be indirectly influenced by the work carried out by
your Committee. No evidence has been laid before them in support of the
allegation that many of the houses are 'brothels of the lowest kind.'
That many 4 unfortunate ' women reside in "the locality would appear to be
certain, but that they ply their occupation to any large extent ' at home'
is, to say the least of it, doubtful. It will be in the recollection of your
Vestry that the district was placed under special nightly observation for a
lengthened period in 1891-2, for the express purpose of discovering whether
any of the houses were used as brothels, and that no evidence on which to
found proceedings was forthcoming. In three instances, however, it was
discovered that women took men to their private rooms in tenement