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official representation to the Metropolitan Board of Works of its unhealthiness
on the 31st May, 1876. This area may be roughly estimated as containing
four acres or thereabouts, and about 314 houses with a population of about
2757, and comprises some courts and alleys of the most wretched description,
which have been condemned by. the Metropolitan Board of Works under the
Artizans' and Labourers' Dwellings Act, 1875, as unfit for human habitation.
I desire to inform your Board that the sanitary condition of several of the
places in this area are becoming worse every day, and the difficulties of getting
anything done to improve the condition of the houses by the landlords are very
great. It is only by daily visiting the localities and frequently urging the
landlords of some of the property to effect the necessary improvements that I
am able to get any sanitary works carried out.
The claims of the several owners of property in the area are being considered
by the Metropolitan Board of Works, and some of them, I believe, have
already been settled; but up to the present time not one of the houses in this
wretched locality has been closed or pulled down under the Act. The shocking
condition of the dwellings in Castle Alley, Jacob's Court, Goulston Street,
Goulston Court, Marlborough Court and Little Love Court, and the unhealthy
appearance of the persons occupying such places, especially the young children,
are very lamentable, and cause me great anxiety. I have served Notices for
the Sanitary Improvement of some of the houses in Castle Alley, Jacob's Court,
Goulston Street, Goulston Court, Marlborough Court, Little Love Court,
Wentworth Street and Boar's Head Yard, and, to some extent, the orders have
been complied with. The extremely bad condition of the area in question, and
the fact of its being much overcrowded, has caused me to make this Report to
you. I may add, that should epidemic disease make its appearance in this
area, I fear that the consequences would be very serious.
I am, Gentlemen,
Your obedient Servant,
RICHARD SKIDMORE WRACK,
19th January, 1880. Sanitary Inspector.
BOARD OF WORKS, WHITECHAPEL DISTRICT.
Dwellings in Royal Mint Street.
Gentlemen,
I have to direct your attention to the dilapidated and bad
sanitary condition of the houses in the courts and turnings south of Royal
Mint Street, more especially to the following, viz.: Searl's Buildings, Hairbrain
Court, Bracey's Buildings, Walton's Court, Well's Yard, and Peter's Court. A
more deplorable state of things could not possibly exist. The houses in themselves
are in a very dirty condition. Some of them are entirely without privy
accommodation, and, in other cases, the privies are so dilapidated and filthy as
to render them unfit for use. In some cases there is no water supply; in others
the fittings are so defective that the water flows over and the yards are flooded
in consequence of the drains being defective. The yards are also badly paved
and there are no dust-bins. On the west-side of Well's Yard and Peter's
Court the closets were in the basements but, from the bad smell arising from
them, notice was given to the owner to have them removed, and such notice
was complied with, excepting in three or four of the houses where the tenants