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pools." The whole of the Tenter Ground was improved under the provisions
of the Whitechapel Improvement Act.
" Shorter's-rents, Bock-street.—This court is close and crowded. There is
a large privy opposite the doors of the centre houses, also at the entrance of the
court, the refuse from a soap work runs down as surface drainage." The
soap work is now abolished.
" Queen-street.—A very close confined street. The houses without
ventilation." Yery little improvement has been effected in this street.
" Crown-court, Glasshouse-street.—This court is very densely populated
by persons of dirty, intemperate habits." Pavement is now improved,
and the court is less crowded.
" Cooper's-court, Blue Anchor-yard.—In this court there are about 200
persons closely packed. In one house containing three rooms there are 19
persons living." This court is now less crowded.
" Barly-street, Royal Mint-street.—Open street, but surrounded by a
bad locality." This street is but very little improved.
" In the Fourth Annual Report of the Poor Law Commissioners, published
in IS38, there is a description given of the sanitary condition of
some parts of Whitechapel Union by Dr. Southwood Smith, which I shall
introduce for the sake of comparison with the condition of the same localities
at the present time. He says, " The greater part of Whitechapel is very
badly drained : in many places the population is densely crowded: the streets,
courts, and alleys, as at present constructed, admit of no current of air :
large collections of putrefying matters are allowed constantly to remain in
the neighbourhood of the houses, and the houses themselves are extremely
filthy."
" The following illustrations of this are given:
" Baker's Arms-alley.—A narrow court with a dead wall about two
yards from the houses, the wall as high as the houses. The principal court
is intersected by other courts extremely narrow, into which it is scarcely
possible for air to penetrate. Close to the dead wall, between the wall and
the houses, is a gutter in which is always present a quantity of stagnant
fluid full of all sorts of putrefying matter, the effluvia from which at the
present moment are most offensive, and the sense of closeness extreme. All
the houses are dark, gloomy, and extremely filthy ; at the top of the innermost
courts are the privies, which are open and uncovered, the soil of which
is seldom removed, and the stcnch of which at the present moment is
abominable. The fever here has been extremely mortal, and has raged in
almost every house." This place is now entirely demolished.
" Johnson's Change, front and back.—A cluster of four courts opening
into each other; the houses are crowded with inhabitants. Some time ago
a cesspool overflowed in one of these courts, and its contents were allowed
to remain upon the surface for several weeks. After a time fever of a
malignant character broke out in the house next the cesspool, and has since