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the place altogether eight families, in all twenty-eight individuals,
just about double the number that it might conveniently lodge.
In justice to the mistress of the establishment, I must say that
everything appeared clean and orderly, and very different from
what is generally seen in dwellings tenanted by the same class of
society elsewhere. There were no disagreeable smells, the yard is
stone-paved, and there is good water supply on each flat.
As Scarlatina was prevalent in the house at the time of my visit,
the service of a Notice was postponed, for to send forth the
inmates into another locality would probably be sending with them
a contagious disease.
The dust heap on the north side of the Plough Road continues
increasing. On the 27th August it measured 128 feet in length,
and 126 feet in breadth, with an average depth of about 6 feet,
thus occupying some 16128 square feet superficial area. Much of
it has been sifted, but, as I said before, the newly carted refuse
smells fearfully. I shall not speak more on this subject, as the
Summons against the Contractor will be heard in a few days at the
Greenwich Police Court.
The Cesspools in Pasfield's Rents are close to the back doors of
the houses, and in a filthy condition, a Notice was served, and the
agent has promised to put in proper drainage. The heavy rains
which have lately fallen have converted the patch of land between
Wyndham and Kinburn Streets, to the south-west of the Surrey
Consumers' Gas Works, into a large swamp, into which the drainage
of six houses in Wyndham Street discharges itself. This place is
the filthiest in the Parish. The pool of stagnant water measures
about 100 feet by 60.
Notices have been served in the other cases of imperfect drainage
mentioned in the Agenda Paper.
The climate of August was remarkable from the quantity of
rain that fell, and the coolness of the atmosphere thereby induced.
The day temperature ranged in the Tunnel Yard between 57°
and 68°, and never rose higher than the latter number, while in
1859 it frequently went to 78° and 80°, and once to 87°. The
average temperature of the month was 60°, lower by 17° than in
August, 1859. In consequence of this cool state of the atmosphere,
diarrhœa, fatal cases of which usually form a large item
in the mortality of August, was almost entirely absent; indeed,
the month was remarkably healthy in Rotherhithe, the cases of
disease being few, and the mortality considerably under the average.
The Parish, however, was not altogether free from epidemic disease.
There are registered 3 deaths from scarlatina, 2 from measles,