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giving it rapid passage to the lower stratum, would prevent that dampness
of the air which is caused by exhalations from earth soaked with moisture,
and from stagnant pools. St. Giles should thus have a dry, pure and temperate
atmosphere, as compared with those parts of London which rest upon
a cold, wet, retentive clay soil.
4. Unfortunately these advantages have been well nigh destroyed. In
order to make suitable roads and sewers, the gravel has been overlaid many
feet in depth with a "made" soil, consisting of old brick-rubbish, and
black earth saturated with the leakage from gas pipes, brick sewers, and
cesspools, through which the local surface drainage cannot readily penetrate.
The sewers are usually carried to a great depth ; and inasmuch as it has been
the practice, until the last year, for the contractors to cart away the gravel
dug out of the trenches, and to fill in with rubbish, the filtration through
the gravel has been arrested, and our beautiful squares surrounded on all
sides by sewers and a made soil, are liable to become damp from retaining an
undue quantity of water. Your Board, seeing this evil, has wisely ordered
that the contractors shall fill in the trenches in future with gravel; and it
is to be hoped that this order will be rigidly adhered to.
The Area. 5. The Area of St. Giles District, including therein the joint
Parishes, consists of 245 acres, of which there are 112 in Bloomsbury, 63 in
St. Giles South, and 60 in St. Giles North.
Open Spaces. 6. This Area is, however, disposed of very differently for
the purposes of habitation and roadway in the three sub-districts, and it is
necessary to advert to these differences in order to obtain a clear conception of
the social condition of the inhabitants. In the first place, Bloomsbury contains
about 24 acres of open space, which is laid out in handsome squares, filled with
a luxuriant vegetation; St. Giles South has 10 acres of space, including the
noble area of Lincoln's Inn Fields; and St. Giles North only 4 acres—altogether
38 acres of space for ventilation and recreation. The houses surrounding
the squares in Bloomsbury are large and spacious ; whilst those in St. Giles
South are small and closely-packed in narrow streets and courts, receiving
but little advantage from the fine area of Lincoln's Inn Fields, which is
outside the densely inhabited parts of the District. St. Giles North holds an
intermediate position as respects the open spaces.
Area of Roads and Footways. 7. The Area of the lloads in St. Giles
District includes 45-6 acres, and of Footways 21-2 acres. Hence there are
about 104 acres of open space, roadways and footways, out of the 245 acres
of land in the District.
8. This does not, however, fully state the case ; because the large yards
and gardens, at the back of the best houses in Bloomsbury, show as much
uncovered space as that included in roads and footways. Hence, Bloomsbury
is highly favored by the mere arrangement of its site. On the contrary, the
houses in St. Giles are so crowded together in the rear, that a large number
of them have no yards at all, whilst the remainder, with rare exceptions,
have yards so small that they hardly afford room for the necessary domestic
accommodations. Under these circumstances there is not, and cannot bo,
adequate ventilation, and men and children must sicken and pine from the
mere want of air.
9. Paving. A considerable portion of St. Giles District is paved with
granite cubes, necessitated by the traffic. The surface drainage from the
granite is far better than, that from the Macadam. In fact, it can scarcely
be said that the Macadamized roads, after long use, drain at all, on account
of the unevenness of the surface and nature of the bottom. The granite,
with the grout, which cements it, and constitutes the road, soon gets
pulverized, and the roads become covered in dry weather with a dust
composed of a mixture of this powder, straw, dung, and house refuse, which
is most prejudicial to health. A shower of rain converts the dust into mud,
and the roads, in some places, owing to the absence, of percolation and
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