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Similar cases to the above have repeatedly occurred in this district during the last
ten years, and several of them have been brought under the notice of your Board; but,
until the passing of the Sanitary Act of 1866, the Board had not the power to compel
the removal of a dead body ; and, even now, the Board is powerless in this matter,
until they have put in force the 27th section of that Act. By this section, it is enacted,
that any nuisance-authority may provide a proper place for the reception of
dead bodies. When proper places have been provided for this purpose, then the clausa
further enacts, that if " any dead body of one who has died of any infectious disease is
retained in a room in which persons live or sleep, or any dead body which is in such a
state as to endanger the health of the inmates of the same house or room, is retained in
such house or room, any justice may, on a certificate signed by a legally qualified
medical practitioner, order the body to be removed to such proper place of reception,
at the cost of the nuisance-authority, and direct the same to be buried within a time
to be limited in such order." I have, therefore, to urge upon the Board the necessity
of their erecting suitable places for the reception of dead bodies. The sites which I
suggest for these mortuary houses, are the church-yards of Whitechapel and of Spitalfields.
In these places, such buildings might bo erected without inconvenience to any
person.
My attention has repeatedly been directed to the want of privy accommodation in
some of the courts in this district. Owing to the defects in the several Building Acts,
landlords, in order to economise space, have built houses without having provided them
with back yards, in which a privy for the use of the inhabitants of each house ought to
have been placed. In those courts where the houses have been so built, the privies are
erected in the open space in front of the houses, and as these privies are accessible to the
public, they are a constant source of nuisance. But even if the public generally had
not access to them, they would be a nuisance to the inhabitants of the locality, for the
following reasons : 1st, they are not properly constructed. 2ndly, they are not in
sufficient number for the use of the tenants. 3rdly, they are not provided with seats
for children, so that they cannot be used by them ; the consequence is, either that the
floor of the privies is covered with filth, or the court itself is more or less covered with
human excrement to the annoyance of the inhabitants, and the disgust of the persons
engaged in visiting the abodes of the poor ; and lastly, there is no arrangement made
for setting apart distinct privies for the use of males and for females, but they are used
indiscriminately by both sexes.
How far we shall be able to lessen the evils arising from these public privies, when
the new rules and regulations relating to lodging houses come into operation, remains
to be seen. It will, in the first place, be necessary for the Board to cause the houses
in all those courts in which public privies exist, to be registered, We shall then be able
to effect such alterations in the construction and arrangement of these conveniences that
the nuisance now complained of may be abated. It is provided in the rules and regulations,
a copy of which is appended to this Report, that there shall be one privy to every
twenty-five inhabitants, and that it shall be kept clean and in a proper state of
repair.
Complaints having again been made to your Board of the nuisance of the Refinery
Premises of Sir Anthony Rothschild, in Royal Mint-street, it was resolved to appoint
a Committee to inquire into the matter, and report the result of their inquiry to the
Board.