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but there are not receptacles in the houses or alleys to keep a reserve,
an evil we think requires to be remedied.
We also think the alleys ought to be frequently flushed with
clean water, which the Vestry have refused to do.
We beg to refer you to an Act to amend the Law relating to
Public Health, 7th August, 1866, clauses 16, 34, 49. and 50, which
seems to meet our case.
(Signed)—W. J. RIVINGTON,
A. SOUTHEY.
On behalf of the Deputation.
52, St. John's Square,
Clerkenwell, E.C.
24th October, 1866.
The Vestry Clerk's Reply.
Yestry Hall, Clerkenwell,
23, Upper Rosoman Street, E.C.,
November 9th, 1866.
Sir,
I have to acknowledge the receipt of your communication
dated the 29th ulto., which has been duly laid before the Sanitary
Committee of this Vestry, and in accordance with their instructions
I beg to submit the following observations with reference to the
subject of the Memorial to the Secretary of State, a copy of which
you enclosed.
The Vestry have long been fully alive to the Sanitary condition
of the courts in Turnmill Street, viz.: Bitt Alley, Frying Pan Alley,
Rose Alley, Lamb Square, and Broad Yard.
These courts are a colony of costermongers and others of that
class, whose habits and notions of cleanliness are of the lowest and
most repulsive kind, and are the most difficult to be dealt with.
In 1857, the attention of the Yestry having been called to the
state of the courts by the Medical Officer of Health, a Sanitary
Committee was specially appointed to inspect them, when it was
found that the houses were filthy, the privies foul in the extreme,
and without pans, traps, or water laid on, and orders were at once
issued to remedy these defects ; the Committee, however, found the
disposition and habits of the people themselves so hopelessly reckless
and filthy that they reported :—
"That though they have adopted such remedies as the immediate
"emergencies of these places require, cannot but express their
"strong conviction that nothing less than the absolute removal
"of the present tenements will bring about a Sanitary state
"more conducive to the health and morals of the neighbourhood,
"and they therefore beg to recommend this step to the serious
"consideration of the Vestry."