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Presented to the Board on the 25th January. 19OO.
Offices of the Board of Works for the Whiteohapel District.
Public Health Department :
No. 15, Great Alie Street,
London, E.,
January 11th, 1900.
To the Chairman and Members of the
Whitechapel District Board of Works.
Gentlemen,
Nearly seventeen years have passed since I was appointed by
your Board, and became responsible for the supervision of the Public Health
Work of the District. Many changes have taken place since then, several
of which I propose to briefly consider. Many houses existed in the year
1883 which have been replaced by dwellings better suited for occupation
by the Working Classes. Under the provisions of the Artizans and
Labourers' Dwellings Acts a good deal of vacant land existed upon which
now stand dwellings which afford a splendid contrast to those which
formerly existed. Not only have many parts of the District became thus
changed, but the population as well have become altered in character and
in nationality.
As it is possible that this may be my last Annual Health Report (it
certainly will be my last as the Medical Officer of your Board) I thought
that it would be interesting to most members, and perhaps it might afford
information to some, if I were to devote a few lines, and also a comprehensive
Table, to explain some of those changes which have taken place.
The Census Returns of 1891 gave evidence of the enormous increase in
the Foreign population which had taken place during the preceding ten
years. In my opinion that increase has been maintained. At the present
time a stranger might readily imagine some parts of our District to belong
to a Continental City.
The general result from a Public Health point of view of this increase in
the Foreign population has been to call for much greater vigilance on the
part of your Officers, for I am compelled to admit that neither the owners
of houses in the Foreign portions of the District, nor the Tenants themselves,
are inclined voluntarily to exert themselves to maintain their
property in the best approved condition.
It was at first thought that the Public Health (London) Act, 1891,
Sec. 94, would have proved most useful in this direction. I anticipated
when that class of property which I am now considering was registered,
that it would become a simple matter to enforce the provisions of the byelaws
which were made under that Section, and which were approved by the
Local Government Board. There was a stumbling-block, however, in the
exemption clause which permitted the very places to escape registration for
which the clause had evidently been framed, merely because higher rents
were imposed than allowed them to be included upon the Register for
"Houses let in Lodgings and occupied by members of more than one
Family."