View report page

12
Tottenham is one of the eight Pari hes constituting the Edmonton
Union. The Union Workhouse and Infirmary are located in Edmonton.
During the War the main buildings were used as a Military Hospital,
and now are devoted to Orthopoedics and the training of crippled
soldiers.
There are three Poor Law Medical Officers and two Relieving
Officers employed in the Tottenham Parish of the Edmonton Union,
who give their services in whole (the Relieving Officers) or in part
(the Medical Officers) to the care of the poor. As these officers are
the servants of the Guardians of the Poor the extent and nature of
their services is not known to the Local Health Authority.
SANITARY CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE DISTRICT.
The Water Supply is from the Metropolitan Water Board s mains,
and is above suspicion. There is a notable exception the supply for
the Public Baths. This is drawn from an artesian well, 452 feet deep,
adjoining the Baths. There is also an open-air bath on the Marshes,
supplied from the River Lea. The domestic supply is constant, and
the water is hard. A clause in the Metropolitan Water Board Act
requires that a storage cistern shall be provided in every house, and
the general custom was to take the water for drinking and cooking
purposes from the storage cistern. Too frequently the cisterns are
found in inaccessible and otherwise undersirable positions, and cleansing
is honoured more often in the breach than in the observance. Until
quite recent years, rightly or wrongly, it was considered that the
Metropolitan Water Board would not allow the domestic supply to
be derived otherwise than from the cistern. Now, however, that
d'fficulty has been overcome, and in a large number of instances the
water for these purposes is taken direct from the rising main.
Closet Accommodation. All the closets are on the Water Carriage
System.
Drainage. The drainage and sewerage of the District is on the
dual system, the surface water being discharged into the River Lea,
the foul sewage being pumped at the Outfall Works, Markfield Road,
into the London County Council's system.