London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

View report page

Whitechapel 1862

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Whitechapel]

This page requires JavaScript

9
without a license is not to exceed £5 for each ofTence. The number of licensed
cow-houses in the district is 35, of which 22 are on the north and 13 on the
south side. The total number of cows is 396. The smallest space for each
cow in any cow-house where more than 1 cow is kept is 240 cubic feet, and
the largest is 2,933 cubic feet. The dimensions of each cow-house and the
number of cows kept in each are given in the Tables Nos. 1 and 2 in the Supplemental
Appendix to this Report.
A return of 133 courts in the district has been made by the Inspectors,
showing the number of houses in each court and the number of inhabitants,
the mode of water-supply and the length of time the water flows in those
courts when the supply is intermittent. From this return it appears that out
of the 133 courts there are 48 which contain 388 houses, and have a popular
tion of 3,233, in which the water-supply is by stand-taps only, from which the
water flows daily (Sundays excepted) for a period varying from a quarter to
half-an-hour. Complaints are frequently made by the inhabitants of the
scarcity of water, and it must be obvious to everybody who considers the important
question of water-supply to the poor that this intermittent supply is
totally inadequate to the wants of the people. I am, however, glad to find
that by the 67th clause of the last amended Metropolis Local Management
Act, it is provided that, "In any case if it shall appear to any Yestry or District
Board that the existing supply of water to any house would be sufficient
for such house if the same were inhabited by a less number of persons, but is
insufficient by reason that the same is inhabited by numerous persons (beingmore
than a single family), it shall be lawful for such Yestry or District Board
to give notice in writing to the occupier of such house requiring him, within
a time specified, to obtain such further supply (not exceeding a supply at the
rate of 30 gallons * per day for each person) as shall to them appear necessary,"
&c. The quantity of water above what is required for the domestic purposes
of the tenants of each house might be advantageously used by its being
allowed to run through the drains for the purpose of keeping them clear of
deposit.
Impi-ovements in the mode of supplying water to the inhabitants have been
effected in the undermentioned courts:—King's Arms Court, Farm Court,
Maria Court, Marlborough Court, Inkhorn Court, Commercial Court, Vine
Place, Osborne Plaee, Mason's Court, Goodwin's Buildings, Wentworth Court
West, Wentworth Court East, Little Love Court, Great Tongue Yard, Shorter's
* Thirty gallons of water daily for each inhabitant appears a very large amount, but if we take into consideration
that the water-closets require several gallons daily to keep them clean, and that a considerable
quantity is also necessary for cleansing the court and houses, as well as for washing and other domestic purposes,
the quantity is not too large.