View report page

13
In the absence of precise references in the Memorial, it is impossible
to say whether the cases in which the Medical Officer has
made suggestions are those to which the memorial refers. I am to
enquire if proceedings have been taken under the Nuisance Removal
Act, to obtain orders for enforcing the Medical Officer's suggestions.
I am, dear Sir,
Your obedient Servant,
(Signed) T. TAYLOR.
ROBERT PAGET, Esq.,
Vestry Clerk,
Clerkenwell.
The Vestry Clerk's Reply.
Vestry Hall, Clerkenwell,
23, Upper Rosoman Street, E.C.
December 12 th, 1866.
Sir,
Your letter of the 13th ulto. has been duly received and
laid before our Sanitary Committee and the Vestry, and I have to
state in reply thereto as follows :—
With reference to the allegation in the memorial referred to
"The water supply is not as it should be—It is turned on for halfan-hour
daily, and is conveyed to the houses through small pipes,
but there are no receptacles in the houses or alleys to keep a reserve,
an evil we think requires to be remedied."
After the receipt of your letter, I again visited the courts in
question along with your Medical Officer, for the purpose of making
personal enquiry upon the subject, and found the inhabitants of
Lamb Square, Bitt Alley, and Frying Pan Alley, (forming really
one court, the communication being common to all), all agree in
stating that they have always an abundant supply of water from a
large cistern erected by order of the Vestry some time ago.
In Rose Alley, the supply is from a cistern which would
evidently be ample, but the inhabitants, instead of drawing it off as
they require it, recklessly draw it off to till their own tubs, &c., in
their own houses, whether they require it or not, and consequently
the cistern is sometimes exhausted before the next supply comes on,
which is at a certain hour daily, but the people agree that they have
generally plenty in their houses, and that it is very rare that any of
them are without; nevertheless, an additional cistern has recently
been ordered here by the Vestry, and it is now in course of construction.