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30 Parish of St. George the Martyr, Southwark.
I would also advise your Vestry to pass a resolution in accordance with Section
33 of the Housing Act, to the effect "That it is expedient to order the demolition of
the buildings," namely, Nos. 1, 2, 3,4, and 5, Red Cow Alley, Tabard Street. These
dwelling-houses were represented by me to your Vestry as being unfit for human
habitation, on the 96th February, 1895, and were closed by means of a Magistrate's
order on the 24th March, 1895. Nothing has been done to these buildings—which
still remain closed—and their continuance in that state is, in my opinion to quote
the words of the Act—"dangerous or injurious to the health of the public, or of the
inhabitants of the neighbouring dwelling-houses.
4th October, 1898.
Special Report on a recent case of Typhus Fever in the Parish of
St. George the Martyr, with General and Special Remarks thereon.
Mr. Chairman,—
In the statistical report which I present to you to-night, mention is made of a
case of typhus in your district. An occurrence of that kind raises issues of so much
importance that I have thought it best to embody my remarks thereon in the form of
a special Report.
On the 22nd October, I received a notification of a case of typhus fever at Guy's
Hospital. The patient was a man, F.K., aged nineteen, who came from 2, Walker
Street, Tabard Street. Alter about a week's illness at home, he went to the hospital,
where he was detained as an in-patient, and his case notified as typhus on the 19th
of October. By error this notification was sent to Bermondsey in the first place, so
that it did not reach me before the morning of the 22nd October. I immediately
wont to the patient's house and inquired into the circumstances of the case, and
without delay urged upon the mother the necessity of disinfection and cleansing, to
which she agreed, together with the removal of herself and children to the Reception
House. The father went away to stay in the house of a son living in Bermondsey,
but two days later I induced him also to come to the Reception House, and meanwhile
communicated to the Medical Officer of Health of Bermondsey the fact that a person
who had been exposed to the infection of typhus has entered his parish.
The patient was a brushmaker by occupation, and had been at work up to the
time of his illness.
The circumstances of the family were fairly easy for the labouring class. The
father was a casual river-side labourer ; three boys were earning wages, and a girl
attended school.
The family living in the house numbered man and wife, three sons, aged 19 (the
patient), 10, 14, and a girl upwards of 10.
The house contained two rooms, a living one on the ground floor (with a capacity
of 132 cubic feet and floor space of 22 square feet per person) and a bed room upstairs
reached from the lower room by stairs. The whole family of six adults (counting as
an adult everyone over 10 as laid down in the bye-laws of this parish for lodging.
houses) slept in three beds in the upstairs room. The cubic space of the bed room
(making no deduction for beds or other contents) was 1,095 cubic feet, leaving 182 5
cubic feet per head, whereas tho minimum allowance under tho above quoted byelaws
is 300 cubic feet for each inmate of a bed room, used exclusively as a sleeping
apartment. I may add, that, in my opinion, the allowance per head should bo at
least l,000 cubic feet, and that, only in the presence of free ventilation. In this
particular bed room under notice there were two windows, an open fireplace and a
doorway. The windows were on one side of the room, opposite a sloping roof on
the other side so that there was no opportunity of cross ventilation.