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9
The water supply to the poor localities in the district remains very nearly
in the same unsatisfactory condition as was stated in my former reports. The
mode of supply has in one or two instances been improved by the substitution
of a tank containing water enough for the daily use of the inhabitants of the
court, instead of the stand pipe from which water flowed for a period of only
half an hour daily. Two houses in Frying-pan Alley which, ever since the
formation of your Board, had been without any water supply (the same having
been cut off many years ago in consequence of the non-payment of the waterrate)
have, by notice served upon the landlord, had the water again laid on.
I am sorry, however, to have to state that there are several houses in the
district which are entirely without any water supply, and that the poor tenants
who, of course, must obtain water from some source, are obliged to get it
from their neighbours, thereby rendering themselves liable to a penalty of a
sum not exceeding ten pounds for each offence, and also rendering the person
who supplies them with water liable to the penalty of a sum not exceeding
five pounds for each offence.
The inspectors have made a return of special visitations to 20 courts, from
which it appears that several rooms are overcrowded, and that some of the
rooms are not only overcrowded but most indecently occupied. In the course
of the inspector's visitations some underground rooms not in accordance with
the provisions of the Act of Parliament regulating the dimensions and other
sanitary particulars of such rooms were discovered by them. At No. 53,
Royal Mint Street, two females were found living in a cellar; and at No. 14,
Wellclose Square, a kitchen was found to be unlawfully occupied by a family.
In consequence of my attention having been drawn by one of the Relieving
Officers of the Union to a room at No. 34, Glass House Street, I visited the
house, but I found it to be a matter of such difficulty to enter the room,
owing to the narrowness of the ladder leading to a trap-door which opened
into it, that I gave up the attempt to do so. However, I looked into the room,
where I saw an old woman lying in a bed from which the dead body of her
husband had been recently removed. The room, or rather the loft, was less
than seven feet high in its highest part. I mention this case to show what
kind of places some people will resort to. Any places, whether a loft
immediately under the tiles or a cellar under the basement of the house,
however unfit for habitation such places may be, will have occupants. The
only way to know of such habitations is to inspect periodically all the houses
in poor districts.
Improvements as regards the pavement have been made by the landlords in
Wilson's Place and Bell Court, Spitalfields. The houses in Tuson's Court
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