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The number of houses in the above-named area is about 450 ; and of
this number there are about 239 without any back yards, and consequently
without any thorough ventilation. 213 have back yards, although for the
most part they are very small. The houses without back yards have the privies
either in the cellars or in the open Court, and are accessible to the public;
and in both instances are nuisances and render such houses unhealthy.
Some of the houses which arc provided with back yards have no access
thereto, except either by descending a flight of stairs into the cellars, and
then ascending another flight of stairs into the yards; or in some instances,
where there are no cellars, thoroughfares are made of the lower rooms, which
are occupied by separate families, into the yards, through which rooms the
slops and filth of the up-stairs tenants are carried. In some of the houses
the lower room is ventilated by a staircase, which forms a part of it, into
the room above.
Goulston Street.
The following Memorial, which was signed by 25 inhabitants of this
District, amongst whom is Mr. James Scott Sequeira, the Medical Officer of
the Union who has the medical charge of that part of the District, was
referred to me.
London, Sept. 10, 1875.
The Board, of Worlts,
Whitechapel District.
Gentlemen,
We, tlie undersigned inhabitants of the Parish of St. Mary, Whitechape],
beg leave to draw the attention of your honorable Board to the shocking condition of
the houses situate in Goulston-street, in this Parish, which we are satisfied are unfit
for human habitation, detrimental to the health and well-being of the whole District,
and in such a sanitary condition as cannot be effectually remedied otherwise than by
an improvement scheme for the arrangement and re-construction of the street and
louses.
We therefore ask you to take such steps as may be necessary to put in force the
provisions of the " Artizans' and Labourers' Dwellings Act, 1875."
Upon the receipt of this Memorial I inspected the locality, and I am of
opinion that the majority of the houses in the narrow part of Goulston Street,
extending from High Street, Whitechapel, to Goulston Square, viz., Nos.
6, 8, 12, 22, on the east side, and Nos. 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13 and 15, on
•the west side, are unfit for habitation from defective sanitary arrangements ;
while the remaining houses, numbered 2, 4, 14 and 16, on the east side, and
Nos. 17, 19, 21, 23 and 25 on the west side, although not defective in their
sanitary arrangements, are unhealthy in consequence of the offensive emanations
arising from the filth of the street, which are breathed by the inhabitants
of the last-mentioned houses; and I may state that the daily cleansing of
the street, however effectually performed, is insufficient to render the locality
hoalthy.