Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Whitechapel]
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pasted on the walls. This supposed economical plan, of allowing the old
and dirty paper to remain, is attended with considerable danger, as the
paper so remaining is likely to retain the contagious matter of disease.
Overcrowding and Indecent Occupation of Rooms.
From the preceding return of sanitary works performed during the
quarter, it appears that on the inspection of houses some of the rooms were
found not only to be overcrowded, (that is to say, a less space than 300 cubic
feet for each person) but, in some cases, they were indecently occupied.
Prom the following report of Mr. "Wrack, one of the Inspectors, the
Board will learn how the poorer class of people are occasionally lodged in
some of the bye-places in this District.
"On Saturday morning, the 2nd March, between 6 and 7 o'clock, I
visited several houses in Goulston Street. At No. 5 I found one woman and
three children sleeping in a dark cupboard on the ground floor, immediately
adjoining an offensive privy ; the room in front of this cupboard was occupicd
by a man and three young female children. At No. 13 1 found, in the back
room of the ground floor, closely contiguous to three privies and a dusthole,
one man, six women, and three children sleeping there. The room measured
12 feet X 9 X 7, giving only a cubic space of 756 feet for ten persons. The
smell arising from each of these places, used as sleeping apartments, was
most offensive."
Trades' Nuisances.
During the quarter a complaint has been made at this office respecting a
nuisance from the premises in Goulston Street in which the manufacture of
''Saccharine for Brewers and Solid Glucose Sugar" is carried on. This
complaint was followed by a memorial to the Board, signed by 56 inhabitants
of the immediate vicinity, setting forth that the stench arising from these
premises was injurious to the health of the neighbourhood. Steps were
immediately taken by the Sanitary Officers of the Board to cause the owners
to adopt such measures as would abate the nuisance complained of; but
hitherto without any satisfactory result. Further proceedings will therefore
be taken to compel the proprietors to abate the nuisance.
The Board likewise received a memorial, signed by 56 inhabitants of the
neighbourhood of Luke Street, Mile End New Town, complaining of a
nuisance injurious to health, caused by the carrying on of the business of a
Fellmonger in that street. The nuisance arising from this business has been
repeatedly complained of, and legal proceedings have been from time to
time instituted to obtain an abatement thereof. These proceedings have
always had a temporary good effect in causing a diminution of the offensive
effluvium; but of late the stench has been so great that the Board deemed
it necessary to again institute legal proceedings. The proprietor therefore
has ceased to carry on the business; and as no person, under the 55th clause
of the Building Act, 1844, can newly carry on this business at a less distance
than 40 feet from a public way, the neighbourhood will be entirely free from
this disgusting nuisance.