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54
The sum of £6,000 was borrowed from the London Life Association
for a period of twenty years at the rate of 5 per cent.
interest; the final instalment of the loan was paid in 1881, and the
Vestry Hall is therefore now absolutely the property of the
Parishioners. Permission has been granted for the St. James's
Savings Bank, and for meetings of the St. James's Divisional
Petty Sessions, and Commissioners of Income Tax to be held in
the Vestry Hall.
Tenders have been invited for cleansing, painting, and repairing
the building, both externally and internally, with a view to the
Hall and Offices being put in a thorough state of repair during the
summer of the present year.
An insurance for ,£2,500 has been effected in the Westminster
Fire Office, and the plate glass is insured with the National
Provincial Plate Glass Insurance Company.
The Stoneyard, Dufour's Place, occupies part of the site of
an old burial ground, which was held under Lord Craven at an
annual rental of £53, until it was purchased for the sum of £3,443
in 1817, under the powers of an Act of Parliament (56 Geo. III.,
cap. 54). Stabling for two horses, store rooms, and an office have
been erected in the Stoneyard. Part of the St. James's Public
Baths are built upon the walls of the Stoneyard, thus forming a
covering to the yard.
A Mortuary House and Disinfecting Chamber have been
erected in the Stoneyard. The Mortuary was erected in the year
1876, at a cost of £323 16s. 3d., and the Disinfecting Chamber, in
1871, at a cost of £122. The bodies of 47 persons have been
received in the Mortuary, and the Disinfecting Chamber has been
used on 17 occasions during the past year. As the main object of
providing these buildings is to protect the parishioners at large
against the spread of infectious disease, the Mortuary and Disinfecting
Chamber may be used without charge.
The following Rules and Regulations have been framed relative
to the Mortuary House:—