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deny that this work is at present a little better clone in Rotherhithe
than it used to be formerly, although it be still far from having
attained that perfection of which it is susceptible. The benefit
however derived from the improvement by the inhabitants is surely
much lessened if the whole of the refuse of this populous Parish,
containing as it does much organic matter, be carted to one
particular spot, and be there allowed to ferment and putrify during
the summer months. Such a state of things actually exists, the
offal of Rotherhithe being collected together on a piece of ground
at the south end of Berkley Street, to the great annoyance of the
residents in that street from its unsightly appearance and the foul
stenches which it exhales. The owners too of the houses in
Berkley Street, declare that the value of their property is diminished
by its presence.
It is questionable to me whether, in this great Metropolis, there
be any Parish or District in which such accumulations of dust can
be found as in Rotherhithe. Besides the one above indicated, there
is the monster mound in the Rotherhithe New Road, covering more
than an acre of land, and which has lately been sold by the Vestry of
Bermondsey, and is now being sifted and slowly carted away.
Another heap is however forming on a piece of ground on the
north side of the Plough Road, between Napier's Place and the
Surrey Canal Bank. To this latter spot from 16 to 24 cart-loads
of house offal from the Parish of Bermondsey are daily carted, and
the heap will soon vie in size with the dust mountain in the
Rotherhithe New Road. Attempts are occasionally made to burn
the organic matter picked out of the rubbish, but they are a
miserable failure, and only give rise to a column of stinking
smoke, for it would require a large quantity of fuel to consume
entirely the vegetable and animal matter mixed up with the ashes.
Whether the refuse of more than fifty thousand people is to be
quietly deposited among us by a dust contractor, is a question
which I must leave this Board to consider and decide upon. It
would be exceedingly unjust to take steps against our Contractor
for forming a dust heap on his own freehold, if we allow another to
create a greater nuisance by bringing among us all the refuse of a
neighbouring Parish. My own conviction is that all these accumulations
emit effluvia, which may become injurious to the public
health.
Fifty deaths were registered during May, of which fourteen
were from measles. The measles have reigned for some time, and
still reign epidemically in Rotherhithe.
Yours respectfully, June, 1860.
W. MURDOCH.