View report page

16
side of the path, which appears to me to be dangerous at all times,
and particularly after dark. Occasionally, too, a small horizontal
wheel, about fourteen or fifteen inches in diameter, with handles,
and used for opening and closing the little sluices or paddles in
the lock gates, is left on the pathway and increases the danger. A
hand rail placed on the northern side, similar to the one which
already exists on the southern side, would much obviate the inconveniences
and perils above alluded to.
A ready objection may be made to these statements, such objection
having already been urged on the occasion of an accident
occurring on the footways over the Lock gates, at the lower
entrance of the Surrey Canal, namely, that the public have no
business on these footways, they being solely for the use of the
men employed by the Company. But as the public do pass over
them, surely it is the duty of the company either to take proper
precautions for preventing that passage, or to provide some other
means of passing over the cutting when the large bridge is open.
Both the Inspector and myself have several times visited the
premises of Mr. Salmon, under the Brighton Railway Arches. We
have invariably found them locked, and on inquiry at the Commercial
Dock Station, I was informed by the officials there stationed,
that no complaints of nuisance had lately been made by the
passengers on the Railway.
The fish nuisance at the Guano Sheds near the Plough Bridge
seems to have entirely ceased.
During the evening of the 19th December, persons residing in
the neighbourhood of Mr. Fisher's premises, Rotherhithe Street,
were much annoyed by the stenches exhaled therefrom. Damaged
grain had been landed at the wharf, and was undergoing the process
of kiln drying. So many notices have been served without any
effective result, that I should suggest the propriety of using some
more stringent measure should the nuisance be repeated.
The dust heap at the Plough Bridge appears much in the same
state as heretofore. All the house refuse of Rotherhithe and
Bermondsey now goes there. The cold weather, by stopping the
decomposition of the organic matter, has abated the nuisance for
the present time.
At the house 215, Rotherhithe Street, the cesspool was full and
the drainage imperfect. A notice has been served.
Notwithstanding the severity of the season, during the greater
part of last month the monthly mortality of Rotherhithe has scarccly
exceeded the average, and the Parish appears free from all cpidemic
diseases, except hooping cough, six cases of which have been fatal.