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11
Deaths of Persons aged 100 years and upwards.
In my Report for Dec., 1878,1 directed the attention of your Board to
the fact that, in the Registrar-General's Report for the year 1874, there
was published a Table, showing that 69 persons (16 males and 53 females),
were returned as aged 100 years and upwards in England and
Wales, and that 6 of that number attained the age of 104 years. At page
lxxxvi. of the Registrar-General's Report for the year 1878, a similar
Table is published, showing that the deaths of 88 persons (24 males
and 64 females) were registered in England Wales, and returned as
aged 100 years and upwards; of these, 5 reached the advanced age
of 105, and 4 of 104 years. Among the 88 deaths recorded in this
Table, there were 2 in the Whitechapel District, 1 of which occurred
at 49, Queen Ann Street, and was that of the widow of a labourer,
whose age was 104, and the other was that of a labourer, aged 103
years, whose place of death was at No. 12, Wood Street, Spitalfields.
It has been for a long time'denied that any person ever reaches 100
years of age, and that those whose ages are said to have exceeded
100 years are not reliable, but when there are so many deaths exceeding
100 years as have lately been annually recorded by the RegistrarGeneral,
it appears to me to be impossible to doubt that both men
and women do occasionally exceed their hundredth year.
Open Spaces.
At page 10 of my Report ended March 29th, 1879, I brought
under the notice of your Board the advantages that would be afforded
to the health of the people living in London by providing in every
District an open space which could be used as a recreation ground.
It is now most satisfactory to me to have to record that, during
this Quarter, final arrangements have been made by your Board for
the purchase of the lease of a piece of ground situated in Baker's
Row, Whitechapel, known as the Quakers' Burial Ground, which had,
for a considerable time, been discontinued to be used as a place of
sepulture.
This piece of ground has an area of 5445 square yards, or about
an acre and one-eighth of an acre, and has been laid out by Mr. Iron
with much taste, and ornamented with shrubs and flowers. This
recreation ground was opened by the Prince and Princess of Wales,
on Thursday, the 24th June, 1880, and it will now form an enjoyable
play-ground, where children can amuse themselves in safety, and
where adults may find temporary rest and repose away from the
crowded and confined courts in which so many of the poorer inhabitants
of this District reside.