View report page

4
dip from the Thames, all water used for household and other
purposes.
A serious inconvenience has arisen to the numerous population
of Hanover-street. Since the 16th March or thereabouts,
the South wark and Vauxhall Water Company have cut off the
water from Hanover-street, which hitherto had been supplied by
three stand pipes. The people are now forced to use water from a
pump communicating with a tidal well. I must recall to the
memory of the Vestry, how the cholera mora than decimated
the inhabitants of Silver-street in the year 1849. The whole of
that street being then supplied with tidal water only. Since
the water has been carried into each house from the Kent
Waterworks, Silver-street has become one of the healthiest
localities in Rotherhithe. Not a single case of fatal cholera
occurred there in 1854, whereas twenty persons, or thereabouts
died in it during the epidemic of 1849, before the alteration
above-named was made.
The average monthly mortality in Rotherhithe is thirtyseven,
the mortality of the month of March last year was
forty-three, I am happy to say that during the just elapsed
month only thirty deaths occurred, seven below the general
average, and thirteen less than in the same month last year.
The parish continues healthy and much freer than usual
from epidemic disease, nor is this desirable state of things
confined to Rotherhithe alone, for the Registrar General reports
on the 14th March:— "The southern division, namely, all that
part of London which lies on the south side of the River, is at
present unusually free from epidemics. No deaths occurred in
it last week from small-pox, only one from measles, four from
scarlatina, ten from hooping-cough, two from diarrhoea, and
eight from typus; the total number on the south side from these
diseases was twenty-five, being the seventh part of the total
number in the metropolis, though the population of the former
(south side) is to that of the latter (the metropolis) as one
to four."
The number of deaths registered in Rotherhithe during the
quarter ending 31st March, 1857, was one hundred and four,
viz.:— fifty-one males and fifty-three females. The number of
births two hundred and thirty, viz.:— one hundred and twentyeight
males and one hundred and two females, leaving a
balance of one hundred and twenty-six more births than deaths.
Yours respectfully,
April, 1857. W. MURDOCH.