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11
Rotherhithe at this moment (30th June, 1857), is remarkably
healthy.
Daring the three months, ending June 30th, two hundred
and two children were born, ninety-nine males and one hundred
and three females; and one hundred and four deaths, from all
causes, were registered, fifty-nine males and forty-five females,
giving a majority of ninety-eight more births than deaths.
Yours respectfully,
July, 1857. W. MURDOCH.
NINETEENTH REPORT.
Gentlemen,
Among the various blocks of houses with which the inhabited
part of Rotherhithe is covered, it would be difficult to find, on
an equal space of ground, a fouler collection of cesspools than
those visited by the Inspector and myself in Swan-lane, Norfolkplace,
York-street, York-place, and the west side of Clarencestreet,
the numbers of the dwellings being given in the Agenda
Paper. Almost every cesspool was full, and at Nos. 21 and 22,
York-street, the 3rards were covered with overflowing filth. I
tasted the water from the butt at No. 21; it was strongly impregnated
with the flavour of drainage. Not a proper ashpit
was to be seen at any of these places, the dust and refuse being
either scattered over the yard, or thrown into a corner. The
superficial drainage appeared to have been originally tolerably
good, but at many houses it was choked up. There was water
supply everywhere, but the receptacles for the water were generally
too small, and often unclean ; scarcely a butt had a cover,
and the contents were, consequently, exposed to receive all sorts
of impurities frbm the atmosphere. I felt during this examination,
that notwithstanding all the past exertions of this
Board and its Officers, the task of improving the habitations of
the poor, of introducing therein order and cleanliness, and of
humanizing their habits of life, is still in its infancy; but, as
I have often said before, I consider this humanization of the
habits of the people as necessary a part of education as the culture
of the understanding.
The house, No. 352, Rotherliithe-wall, is tenanted by a greengrocer
; it was formerly a warehouse or factory. In the upper
and front part of the warehouse, sleeping-rooms have been
built; the back part remains much the same as it was originally,
and is used as a stable. The from part of the basement
floor, under the sleeping-rooms, is a shop with a small, dark
room partitioned off, so that the stable and the dwelling-house