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120
New Sewers.
"It is found by a statement, supplied by the Vestry's Surveyor, that 7,544½
lineal feet of new sewer has been constructed during the last ten years, and at
a total cost of £2,887; and that 1,254 private drains have been constructed or
re-constructed into sewers at a total cost of £2,484.
New Streets,
"The construction of New Streets includes Great Eastern Street, the
western end of Bethnal Green Road, Chatham Avenue, and Appold Street.
"The Streets Widened and Improved include High Street, the south end
of Hackney Road, Harwar Street, Nile Street, and Huntingdon Street.
"In carrying out these improvements, large numbers of old and dilapidated
houses were swept away. Willow Walk, Long Alley, and a large number of
adjacent courts and alleys, with all their ruinous tenements, have entirely
disappeared.
Report of the
Medical Officer
of Health on
the Finsbury
Estate of the
Ecclesiastical
Commissioners
"A large number of the houses referred to stood upon the Finsbury estate
of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, and how that body studied the financial
advantages opened up to them by the public spirited efforts of the Vestry, and
set at nought sanitary considerations, may be gathered from the special report
of Dr. Sutton, the Medical Officer of Health, presented to the Vestry in 1871,
upon the condition of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners' Estate situate in
Shoreditch.
Metropolitan
Board of
Works and
Cross's Act.
"The Vestry has not been remiss in using the powers given to it by the
Legislature. In October, 1876, the Medical Officer reported the houses of
Cotton Gardens, Hackney Road, and Hudson's Court, Kingsland Road—under
Cross's Act—to the Metropolitan Board of Works, and not until three years
afterwards was a reply received from that Board stating that it was an area
they could not deal with.
Torren's Act
and the Court
of Quarter
Sessions re
Aim's Place.
"Torren's Act was applied in 1876 in condemnation of Ann's Place,
11 houses, all in the most insanitary condition). Against the Vestry's order
to demolish the houses, the owner appealed to the Quarter Sessions, with the
result that the premises were visited by the Bench of Magistrates, and, though
it was shown that several houses were traversed by a disused sewer within
18 inches of the floors, and others of the houses were built on the edge of
another section of the sewer into which they were evidently settling, and
though the roofs, walls, ceilings, floors, doors, sashes, and all internal fittings
were worn out and dilapidated, nevertheless the Bench gave the owner (a
wealthy man) the privilege of repairing the tenements, and decided that each
party should bear their own costs, which in the case of the Vestry amounted
to £537.
Metropolitan
Board of
Works and
Cross's Act,re
Ann's riace.
"In October, 1882, the houses being again let, and still in an evil plight,
the Medical Officer reported them, under Cross's Act, to the Metropolitan Board
of Works as being unfit for habitation, including in his report five houses in
Boundary Street, nine houses in Jane Shore Court, and one in High Street.