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
Fulham 1890
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Fulham]
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COMPARATIVE TABLE.
Showing the increase in the population, length of roads, footpaths, &c., of the Parish since the separation from Hammersmith in 1886. The census taken on the 5th day of April, 1891, gave the population at 91,640, being 42,850 males, and 48,790 females. There were also 797 unoccupied houses, and 339 in course of erection. The population at the previous census in 1881 was 42,895.
| Length of Carriage way. | Length of Poo-ways to same. | Length of Public Footways where no Carriage-way. | Estimated Population. | Inhabited Houses. | Rateable Value. | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| m. | yds. | m. | yds. | m. | yds. | • | ||||||
| 1886 | 35 | 1 | 144 | 63 | 6 | 166 | 7 | 2 | 0 | 72,142 | 11,265 | £336,674 |
| 1887 | 36 | 5 | 199 | 66 | 6 | 132 | 7 | 1 | 22 | 77,997 | 1.1,277 | £343,572 |
| 1888 | 38 | 2 | 112 | 70 | 6 | 125 | 6 | 7 | 215 | 79,605 | 11,890 | £360,354 |
| 1889 | 40 | 5 | 41 | 75 | 1 | 118 | 6 | 6 | 183 | 86,124 | 12,181 | £373,159 |
| 1890 | 44 | 6 | 102 | 83 | 2 | 118 | 6 | 6 | 183 | 91,000 | 12,417 | £385,407 |
| 1891 | 45 | 3 | 173 | 84 | 5 | 22 | 6 | 6 | 183 | 91,640 | 12,869 | £426,551 |
Year after year it has been my unpleasant duty to call the attention of the
Members of the Vestry to the reduction of the estimates for the item of granite.
The amount allowed annually for granite by the Fulham District Board
of Works was £2,400, and although the traffic in this district has probably
more than trebled since that time, in addition to the enormous numbers of
omnibuses now running in and through the Parish, the Vestry have reduced
the amount of the estimates, sometimes to £1,500, sometimes to £1,000, and for
the year 1891-2 to £1,137 10s., although the price of granite has increased
during these years from about 11s. to 14s. 3d. a cubic yard.
My first Annual Report pointed out that the best, and practically the
cheapest, policy is to maintain as far as possible a macadamised road in a perfect
condition, because immediately it gets out of repair the wet remains on the surface
and assists the deterioration.
The estimates are now so reduced, and granite so sparingly supplied, that for
months in the year the Vestry is without granite, so that it is impossible to
follow out the policy suggested above.
Too much importance has been attached to the lengths of roadway
paved with wood each year, and the quality and quantity of the old granite
macadam taken off these roads.
This old granite is not suitable for the repair of roads unless it has a coating
of new over it, and therefore, while making every allowance for the value of
this material, in face of the additional number of roads (now 85 against 24 in
1886) paved with granite, and the enormous increase of traffic in the district,
the Vestry ought not for the future to reduce the estimate below £3,000 a year
and always to keep a certain amount, if only one hundred yards, in stock.
The Vestry might also pay more attention to the suggestions in my previous
reports, viz.—To purchase some granite broken to pass through a two-inch
ring, it being more suitable for mending roads; also to inform the contractors
that in the future the order for the whole of the granite required for the year
will be given during the summer months (when freights are low), by which
means the price might be reduced perhaps to 10/6 a yard, and a saving effected
of 3/9 a yard, on 4,200 yards equal to £787 10s.