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13
made to adopt the Baths and Washhouses Act.
This motion was carried by a fair majority and the Act was
formally adopted and nine Commissioners were appointed.
At that time considerable difficulty was experienced in the
search for a suitable site- At length the Commissioners selected
some practically vacant land in the High Street where Calvert Street
now stands ; and made a provisional purchase of the same from the
Ecclesiastical Commissioners for £8400. When the Baths Commissioners
submitted the proposal to the Vestry for ratification and
for permission to borrow the money required, the Vestry adjourned
the consideration for six months. Whether the reason for this
vote after the adoption of the Act was an objection to the site or
to the cost, or possibly both, the official records do not say.
The Commissioners accepted the resolution as a rejection of the
scheme, They paid the legal costs of the provisional purchase,
wound up their affairs and dissolved-
In 1877 the subject was brought under the consideration of the
Vestry as at present established. A committee was appointed
which reported in favor of the adoption of the Act, but upon their
recommendation being presented to the Vestry the motion for its
approval was rejected by a resolution to postpone the consideration
of the matter sine die.
If Baths and Washhouses are essential to the cleanliness and
health of the inhabitants of the poorer and crowded localities, it is
a remarkable fact that with the exception of a comparatively small
establishment at Poplar, one of the first to be established in the
Metropolis, and one originally founded and enlarged by private
means, but now taken over by the parish of Whitechapel, there is no
Parochial Establishment of this kind east of St. Giles, Bloomsbury,
and Tottenham Court Road. Even the Corporation of London
which has in the Eastern District a considerable and poor
population and which is always ready to expend its wealth upon
Markets, Cemeteries, Lunatic Asylums, Prisons, Open Spaces &c.
seems never to have regarded the provision of Baths and Washhouses
as worthy of serious consideration.