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18
being tenanted by a very poor and improvident class of
persons, I would suggest that some steps be taken to keep the
passage clear and free from nuisance.
The houses on the east side of Berkeley-street have no drainage,
all the refuse water, slops, soapsuds, &c., being thrown or
run into a small ditch at the back of the yards, and located on
the land of a market gardener. In the course of time the ditch
has become full of stagnant sewage, and the stenches arising
therefrom during the summer caused annoyance to the dwellers
in Berkeley-street and Chester-terrace. The houses ought to be
drained into the neigbouring sewer, and I am credibly informed,
that on service of a notice, steps were immediately taken by the
landlord to that effect.
The sack merchant, spoken of in my last Report, on receiving
a notice from this Vestry, struck his tent, and evacuated with all
his troop, sacks, bags, and baggage the position which he had
so long occupied on Rotherhithe-wall, to the great discomfort of
his neighbours.
Forty deaths were registered in this parish during the month
of September, eight of these were from diarrhoea and dysentery;
of the eight, six were children, one an adult, and the other an
elderly female aged 83. Two cases of typhoid fever have
proved fatal; one of these, a single person aged 18, imported it
with her from Havre-de-Grace (France), where she had been in
service. In the other case, a married woman of 24, the malady
seems to have been generated in this locality. She resided in
Swan-lane, about fifty feet from that part of the King's-mills'
stream, which was described in my last Report, as one of the
greatest nuisances in Rotherhithe, or any other part of the
metropolis.
The other epidemics, namely, measles, scarlatina, hoopingcough,
and small-pox, have been absent from the neighbourhood
during the whole of the summer, no death from any of them
having been recorded since April last. I consider that at this
present time (1st October, 1857), the number of cases of illness
in Rotherhithe is under the average, and at the same time, I
must state, that since April it has been freer from the four
epidemics above-named, than I have ever before known it.
Long may it continue so.
During the quarter ending October 1st, 1857, one hundred
and fourteen persons died, fifty-nine males, and fity-five females;
and there were born one hundred and ninety-three children,
ninety-eight males and ninety-five females, the excess of births
over deaths, being seventy-nine.
Yours respectfully,
October, 1857. W. MURDOCH.