London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Hackney 1950
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Hackney]
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17
Particulars of samples purchased under the Food and Drugs
Act, 1938, and submitted to the Public Analyst, D. T. Lucke, Esq.,
B.Sc., F.I.C., are given on page 72 of this report.
Details of the bodies deposited in the Public Mortuary during the year are given in the following table:—
| Residents of Hackney. | *Residents outside the Borough. | Total. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of bodies deposited in the mortuary | 313 | 155 | 468 | |
| 1. To await inquests | — | — | — | |
| 36 | 21 | 57 | ||
| 2. To await burial | — | — | — | |
| 3. Cause of death certified by Coroner | 277 | 134 | 411 | |
| Number of post-mortem examinations made | 313 | 155 | 468 | |
| *Includes bodies of non-residents dying in hospitals in Hackney. | ||||
SANITARY CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE AREA
Sanitary Inspection.
The past 30 years have witnessed a considerable change in the
sanitary environment of the borough—much of the former slum
property has been demolished; only 21 of the 45 underground bakehouses
in use in 1920 are now approved and these are of superior
type; all the 18 licensed cowhouses have ceased to exist and none
of the 21 licensed slaughterhouses, in which approximately 2,000
animals were slaughtered annually, is now in use. No animals
have been slaughtered in Hackney since the war, and the only
slaughtering now carried out is that of poultry for which two
slaughterers are licensed.
In 1930 the responsibility for the licensing and supervision of
common lodging houses was transferred from the London County
Council to the Borough Council, but there is now only one common
lodging house in the borough as compared with the four which
formerly existed.
For many years house and other refuse collected in the borough
was burnt in a destructor attached to the generating plant at the
Electricity Station, which was in close proximity to, and supplied
heat to the Disinfecting Station. This service gave rise to complaints
in the borough of rat infestation and nuisances from smoke,
etc., and also complaints from districts outside London where the
clinker was deposited, since the clinker became a breeding ground