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manure itself, and that he should put up efficient machinery, so that all gases generated in
the factory should pass through a fire and be burnt before escaping into the atmosphere.
This he has since done. (See Monthly Reports).
At Messrs. Miller and Johnson's, Manure Makers, Rotherhithe-street, the shaft has been
raised, and the smells arising from the factory thereby much diminished.
At the Globe Wharf, which has been much complained of, the manufacturer has promised
to use every practicable means to abate the nuisance, and has set about it by consulting
at once the Surveyor of this Board.
The cowhouses and slaughterhouses have been inspected as usual, no complaint has ever
been made against these places, and I believe them to be well conducted.
Thirty-three bakehouses in Rotherhithe have also been personally visited by me, and I
must say that I was everywhere received by the bakers with kindness and courtesy. The
bakehouses in Rotherhithe are, as a rule, clean and well appointed. The master bakers generally
eulogising the recent Act of Parliament relative to the regulation of bakehouses, and
often describing in no measured terms the dens in which they had been obliged to work when
journeymen, or in the days of their apprenticeship.
The Petroleum Works at the back of the Noah's Ark have been discontinued, the
premises having been taken by the Commercial Dock Company.
The Water supplied to Rotherhithe is of good quality. Complaints, however, have often
been made to me by inhabitants of some of the new streets branching off from the Deptfordroad
of scantiness of supply for several days consecutively.
The scavenger work has been better done than during the preceding year.
The Black Ditch, or Earle Sewer, and the Surrey Mill Stream, than which there are not
two more disgraceful receptacles of filth in all London, still continue in the same state as
heretofore.
It is refreshing to turn from these streams of putrefaction to the park which is about to
be formed in Rotherhithe. The inhabitants are already enjoying in anticipation its green
turf, pleasant avenues, shady walks, and cooling water jets. We must all congratulate
ourselves upon this coming event, which will not only afford to the people a place of innocent
recreation, but tend also much to improve the healthfulness of the Parish.
I shall conclude by expressing my cordial thanks to the Vestry and its Officers.
Yours respectfully,
W. MURDOCH.
lst June, 1864.