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19
As the following Petition, which, in 1845, was presented to the House
of Lords by the Marquis of Normanby, gives a description of Blue Anchor
Yard and the Courts therein, I have set forth the same in full:—
The humble petition of the undersigned sheweth :
That your petitioner, in the capacity of Medical Officer of the Whitechapel
Union, is called by his professional duties to visit daily the dwellings of the poorer
classes in this Union ; many of which dwellings are at the present moment in so filthy
and poisonous a condition as to endanger the lives of those who reside in them, and
the health of the neighbourhood.
That an account of the condition of the streets, courts and alleys in this District,
which made a powerful impression on the public mind and published six years ago by
the Poor Law Commissioners, from a report by the Physician of the Eastern Dispensary,
Dr. Southwood Smith, the accuracy of whose description was verified by the
personal inspection of the Marquis of Normanby, Lord Ashley, and several other
members of both Houses of Parliament.
That not only has nothing been done from that time to the present to improve
the condition of most of these streets, courts, aud alleys, but they have been progressively
getting worse and worse. That in Blue Anchor Yard, for example, which is
described in the report just referred to as a "street abounding with narrow courts,
where it is scarcely possible for anyone to penetrate, there being in the centre of the
street an open gutter, which is always full of putrifying matter," there are now in
addition, large holes, which, as well as the gutter, are constantly filled with all sorts
of refuse and filth. There is no footpath, and the houses, which are dilapidated and
filthy to the last degree, without drainage, without water, and we without privies.
That among the houses in one of the small courts in this street—Cooper's-c ourt, one
was in such a dilapidated condition that it was necessary to take it down some time
ago, and the site is now occupied by a large dung-hill, formed of every description of
refuse matter mixed with the contents of privies and the filth of adjoining pigsties,
seveial of the rooms in the immediate neighbourhood of this court being inhabited by
pigs. Again, in Rose Court, another court in this street, some of the old dilapidated
wooden houses which formed one side of this court have been recently pulled down.
Into the vacant space the contents of the privies of Crown Court empty themselves,
forming a large reservoir of most filthy fluid composed of the contents of the privies
and rain-water, from which a noisome stench exhales, and into which the children,
many of whom are always found at play near this dangerous spot, may readily fall
and perish instantaneously from suffocation.
That it was stated, six years ago, that fever had been extremely prevalent in the
whole of Blue Anchor Yard, that in its narrow courts scarcely a house had escaped,
aud that in the extremity of this street, where it makes a sudden curve, fever had
been raging in every house ■without exception.
That your Petitioner, from his own personal knowledge, can testify that fever
has been more or less prevalent in all those places ever since, and that a few days ago the
wretched and squalid inhabitants expressed to your Petitioner the utmost apprehension
at the setting in of the warm weather, conceiving that their children must
inevitably become the victims of fever ; yet they know not how or where to seek for
redress.
That your Petitioner, well aware that these apprehensions are but too well
founded, has used his best exertions to get this street placed under a paving commission,
and that he did succeed in getting a plan drawn at the expense of the Ratcliff
Commission ; but when it was found that the property was so bad as to be capable of
affording no return in the shape of rates, the plan was abandoned, the Commission