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By arrangement with the Executive Council for North East London a General Dental
Service is provided. Sessions are held mainly in the evening and some of the dental officers
employed during the day time by the Local Authority assist with this work.
The building also includes a two-bedroom flat for a resident caretaker and there is, in
the grounds, considerable car-parking space.
Since the Health Centre was opened it has been visited by many interested persons,
individually and in groups, among whom have been medical officers of health, general practitioners,
members and officers of Borough Councils and Executive Councils, architects etc., and considerable
numbers of the general public.
Use of the premises is made available during evening periods to a variety of voluntary
organisations whose work is associated with that of the Health and Welfare Department.
CLEAN AIR
INTRODUCTION
As long ago as the thirteenth century the general unpleasantness of pollution of the
atmosphere was recognised and legislation was enacted to prohibit the burning of coal, the chief
cause of pollution then, as now.
The first recorded sanction enforcing such legislation was the execution, in 1306, of an
artificer for using sea-coal in a furnace, although even the most earnest clean air fanatic of today
might argue that such drastic measures is carrying enthusiasm to excess. A year later the first
official enquiry into the problem of atmospheric pollution was undertaken.
By the mid-seventeenth century the state of atmospheric pollution in London had reached
such a point that eminent personalities of the age, such as John Evelyn, the diarist, thought it of
sufficient importance to warrant the submission of a lengthy report of some 10,000 words upon the
subject ("Fumifugium") to the reigning monarch Charles II and to Parliament - year 1661. Referring
to air pollution in the City of London he wrote:-
"This is that pernicious Smoake which sullyes all her Glory, super-inducing
a sooty Crust or Fur upon all that it lights, spoyling the moveables, tarnishing
the Plate, Gildings and Furniture, and corroding the very Iron-bars and hardest
Stones with these piercing and acrimonious Spirits which accompany its
Sulphur; and executing more in one year, than exposed to the pure Aer of the
Country it could effect in some hundreds.
It is this horrid Smoake which obscures our Churches, and makes our Palaces
look old, which fouls our Clothes, and corrupts the Waters, so as the very Rain,
and refreshing Dews which fall in the several Seasons, precipate this impure
vapour, which, with its black and tenacious quality, spots and contaminates
whatever is exposed to it.
It is this which scatters and strews about those black and smutty Atomes
upon all things where it comes, insinuating itself into our very secret Cabinets,
and most precious Repositories"
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