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3
Since the year 1871, when the last addition was made to the
staff of your Sanitary Inspectors, the growth of the parish of
Lambeth has been continuous. In the older districts, where
no room remains for further development, the houses already
occupying the ground arc used for the accommodation of a
greater number of families. The growth in the outer wards
is more apparent. The land which lay between and separated
the detached districts has been converted into building estate,
intersected with streets, and covered with houses. Loughboro'
and Herne Hill on the one side, and Vauxhall and Stockwell
on the other, have become conterminous with Brixton, and
that which was formerly an isolated suburb is now regarded
as the business centre of South London.
This change in the condition of the parish has been
accompanied by a growth no less remarkable. The education
of public opinion upon questions relating to health has
kept pace with the advances made in Sanitary Science;
especially are the upper and middle classes more conscious
of the advantages derived from sanitary dwellings, and less
patient in tolerating the existence of a nuisance either upon
their own premises or that of their neighbour. The growth
of opinion is manifest in the increasing number of demands
made upon the Sanitary Department, formerly the aid of
the Inspector was seldom invoked. Now every post brings
with it batches of requests bearing upon the subject of drain
defects, drain testing, and drain reconstruction. Moreover
it has become a custom with parishioners before entering
upon a purchase or lease to make an application at the
office for a preliminary inspection of the premises.
A mode of Sanitary administration considered efficient
twenty years ago by every Metropolitan Vestry would scarce
meet with the approval or indeed escape the censure of the
parishioner of to-day. The Inspector was an unskilled