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19
TWENTY-SECOND REPORT.
Gentlemen,
Your Officers have always considered it their first and most
important duty, to penetrate into the dwellings of the humbler
classes, and to introduce therein, as much as possible, cleanliness
and order, without, which all attempts at social improvement
must necessarily fail. Hanover-street, inhabited by the poorest
people in Rotherhithe, has often been to them an object of solicitude.
This street, sloping southwards down from the bank of
the river consists with its appendage, Hanover-court, of about
thirty-eight houses, two of which at the north end, are of modern
construction, the remaining thirty-six are exceedingly old and
inconveniently built. As a correspondence relative to the state
of this property has recently taken place between the Vestry
Clerk and the freeholder, the Inspector and myself were induced
to examine it, not cursorily and superficially, but by a visitation
from house to house, noting down the merits and demerits
of the place, and the result of our obervations I have condensed
in the following report.
The houses, though old and out of repair, are tenantable, and
with few exceptions, wind and water-tight, and not in worse
condition than dwellings in other parts of the metropolis
occupied by a similar class of population. The main-drainage
of the street is excellent, a new sewer having lately been constructed
by order of this Vestry. The drainage of the houses
has also been, in every case, connected with the sewer, some few
of the drains are untrapped, but the greater part of them have
siphon-traps of glazed pottery with a coverlid of wood, a mode
of trapping which appears fragile and imperfect.
The privies are of wood, all in a dilapidated condition and
without fastenings. A wooden button on the outside, and a
piece of string on the inside of the doors, may be seen here and
there. The leaseholder declares that he cannot employ metal as it
speedily disappears from the premises. The privies are all fitted
with pans and communicate with the sewer, but have no proper
water supply; indeed there is not a cistern or water-butt in the
whole street.
Heaps of ashes are strewn about the yards, which are in a
filthy state, the heap in the yard being the receptacle for all the
refuse of the house. Much complaint is made of the neglect of
the scavengers, who, according to the statement of the leaseholder,
have not regularly and properly removed the dust, and
have not put a broom on the surface of the street since February
last. The cleansing has been entirely done by himself and the
tenants.