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Inquest cases—non-certified cases 21-22
The Mortality in the sub-distrusts for 10 years 22
The Mortality in the Workhouse and Local Institutions 22
The Bloomsbury Dispensary 22
The British Lying-in Hospital 23
The Infants' Home 28
The Sanitary Work of the year 1872-3 23
The Disinfecting Chamber 24
The Mortuary 25
Rag and Bone Shops 25
Cowsheds 25
Slaughter-houses 25
Condemned Houses 25
Underground Rooms 25
Houses unfit for Occupation 25
Bake-houses 25
Bad Food 26
Sewers 26
Appendix 27
To the Board of Works for the St. Giles District.
Gentlemen,
1. I purpose to review the sanitary operations of your Board during the
past ten years, and I trust that I shall be able to present a satisfactory
resume of the work done, without running into undue length of statement.
The publication of the Decennial Census, by the Registrar General, affords
the opportunity for such a review.
The site of St. Giles District. 2. St. Giles District is admirably
situated for the maintenance of a high standard of health. Its natural
advantages are very great, and afford facilities for ventilation, drainage,
and equality of temperature surpassed by few, if any, other localities
in the metropolis. Dr. Buchanan, in his Report for 1858, stated some
interesting facts on this point. The average elevation of the land in this
District is about 68 feet above high-water mark; the British Museum,
which stands about the centre of the upper plateau, being 72 feet above
that datum. In Alfred Mews the elevation is 78 feet, but the land
begins to fall in the line of Oxford Street and Holborn to about a
level, next to the Strand District, of 53 feet. Hence, St. Giles enjoys
the protection, towards the north and east, of the lofty hills of
Hampstead and Highgate, and is sufficiently high above the river to escape
the influence of the damp malarious fogs which usually hang, morning and
evening, over low-lying districts.
The Soil. 3. The soil on which it lies is a breadth of gravel, with occasional
patches, several feet deep, of clay loam resting upo'n it. The gravel
commences at the north, near Tavistock Square ; and, on the east by an oblique
line, through Woburn Place to Brunswick Square, where the London clay
crops to the surface. On the south, it extends, getting deeper as it falls,
to the Strand; and on the west it runs through Marylebone and Kensington,
where it is mixed with clay, to the suburbs. Supposing such a site to be in
its natural state, it would be difficult to conceive one better adapted to
promote the health of persons living upon it. The stratum of gravel taking
all the surface drainage, polluted though it might bo by animal excrement
and decaying vegetation, would purify it as it percolated through ; and, by