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12
ANNUAL REPORT OF THE CHIEF SANITARY INSPECTOR
FOR THE YEAR 1951
To the Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors
of the Royal Borough of Kingston-upon-Thames.
Mr. Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have the honour to present for your consideration the
Annual Report on the work of your sanitary inspectors for the
year 1951.
It is the thirty-third such Report I have been privileged
to submit to your Corporation. It is my valedictory statement
and for this reason I may be permitted to write a little more
than is customary in this introduction.
Much water has flowed under Kingston Bridge since I was
appointed your sanitary inspector 34 years ago. Looking back
over those eventful years perhaps I would like to refer to a
few matters which I feel are worthy of recollection.
My predecessor apparently confined himself, during his
twenty-five years service, to the abatement of such nuisances
as arose from choked drains, accumulations of manure, etc.
I recall very clearly his daily peregrinations around the town
accompanied by an assistant who carried a bucket which contained
so-called disinfectant powder. This powder was sprinkled around
in the evil smelling back yards and urinals which abounded at
the time. It had the temporary effect of smothering the smell,
and it had the advantage of economy, as the powder was mainly
brickdust to which some pine or other similar fluid had been
added. It seemed to satisfy quite a few people and not least
certain prominent local folk who were in the habit of sending
periodically for a supply of this powder to "disinfect" their
ashpits. (galvanised dustbins were then extremely rare).
That my predecessor must have devoted some time to house
repairs is almost certain, but it must have been little in
extent. No records of any such inspections or indeed of any
other work carried out over the previous quarter of a century
were made available to me. Kingston had passed through what
might have been described as a dark age. How much lighter it
became in the subsequent years I leave to those to assess who
were knowledgeable of the past and who may have been interested
lookers-on over the course of the years.
In those days the houses in St. Peter's Road, then known as
Asylum Road, were let off room by room and each to a separate
family. They were farmed out by the leaseholder mainly to
Italian landlords who paid a rent of about 12s. weekly for each
house, In turn these astute people let the rooms at rents
which produced for them very handsome profits. The Italians
lived in the road and were always on the spot each week to
collect the rents, which was something the real owner had
seldom succeeded in doing. xhis Italian colony had settled
in Asylum Road when it was removed from what was known as
"The Back Streets" near Kingston Bridge. Their other source
of livelihood was the sale of ice-cream in Summer and roast
chestnuts in Winter. Both of these commodities were prepared
and stored in the houses; so were their gaudy vehicles and the
animals which drew them housed on their premises, and it was a
common sight to see the hind part of donkey disappearing through
the front door on its way to a shed in the back yard.