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8
FIFTY-FIFTH REPORT.
Gentlemen,
The land of Mr. Gale, market gardener, Jamaica Level, Rotherhithe,
is traversed by a ditch which communicates with a covcred
sewer, the sewer passes under an arch of the railway occupied by
a leather dresser. The refuse liquid from the various processes
employed by the latter, runs into the sewer, and from the sewer
into the ditch, depositing a filthy purple coloured sediment. Mr.
Gale complains that the stenches arising therefrom arc injurious to
his health and to that of his family, and also that the water of the
ditch is so contaminated by the various substances mixed with the
drainage, that it becomes unfit for watering the garden, and when
used, hurtful to the vegetation. Sincc the complaint was made
the ditch has been cast, and a dam placed across it near to the
covered sewer, to prevent, if possible, the contamination above
named, and to turn the drainage from the arch into another
channel.
To the south west of the Surrey Consumers' Gas Works, and
adjoining the Wyndham Road, is a piece of vacant land. Large
quantities of street and other rubbish have been shot on it here
and there, so that it is covered with little hillocks. From the
quantity of rain which has fallen during the summer, the spaces
between the hillocks have become pools of stagnant water, which
putrifies during the hot weather. The stench is increased by the
drainage of six houses in the Wyndham Road, which discharges
itself on to the land. There is not in Rotherhithe a place in worse
condition than this patch of ground, and I beg to call to it the
attention of the Visiting Committee.
On the 28th July, the adjourned summons against Mr. Lipscomb,
dust contractor, was heard at the Greenwich Police Court, and an
order obtained for the removal of the nuisance.
My last visit to the dust mound at Plough Bridge was on the
2nd of the current month. The original heap, with the exception
of a small portion at its south-west corner, had all been sifted, and
the ashes were being daily removed in barges, but since my last
report to this vestry, a new accumulation, 100 feet long and from
40 to 60 wide, has taken place at the north end of the old heap;
nor is this to be wondered at, when we reflect that from 16 to 24
loads of house refuse, from the large Parish of Bermondsey, are
conveyed there daily.
The contractor pretends that all the organic matter is removed