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view, would result if the whole were included in a scheme of re-construction; yet, as a
matter of comparison, I feel it to be my duty to represent that I have selected the portion,
which with few exceptions, comes within the definition "unfit for habitation"
I am, Gentlemen,
Your obedient Servant,
JOHN LIDDLE.
Board of Works, Whitechapel District,
27th April, 1876.
For the information of your Board, and for that of the Metropolitan
Board of Works, I may state that while the rate of mortality in the Whitechapel
District, for the year ending 4th October, 1874—the same being the
latest return in my possession—was 28.0 per 1000, the rate of mortality in
that portion comprised in my official representation was 36.4 per 1000,
about 30 per cent. in excess of the total mortality of the entire District;
in other words, while 7 died in the whole of the Whitechapel District, 9
died in this locality. I may add, as showing the unhealthiness of these
several places, that out of the 83 deaths which occurred here in the
year, there were no less than 22, or 26.5 per cent. of them from scrofulous
and the allied diseases—such as consumption, tabes mesenterica, convulsions
in children, infantile diarrhœa, atrophy, and debility; all of which diseases
are of more frequent occurrence in crowded than in more open Districts.
Further, in a letter which I have recently received from Dr. Dyte, the
Medical Officer to the Board of Guardians for the Belief of the Jewish Poor,
he says, in reply to a written communication respecting the health of those
places mentioned in the above official representation, that, from the occasional
visits he has made to them, he is strongly convinced that words
can hardly be found to describe the horrible condition of some of them—
notably Keate Court, Keate Street, and the eastern end of Wentworth
Street; and that Inkhorn Court and Commercial Court, especially the
former, have always been in a very unwholesome condition.
New Building Act Required.
In this District alone, owing to the defects in the existing Building
Act, several houses within the last fifteen or sixteen years have been built,
which are, in my opinion, unfit for habitation. These have been pointed
out by me not only to your Board, but to the Metropolitan Board of Works;
but owing to the defective sanitary provisions of the Building Act, there
was no power to prevent their erection. It appears now to be highly probable,
that in due course upwards of 450 houses will be taken down in
this District on the south side of Royal Mint Street, and on the site a
superior class of new houses for the accommodation of the working classes
will, probably, be built; it is, therefore, of the utmost importance that a
new Building Act should be speedily obtained, whereby the erection of