[46]. By my colleagues and myself, the uncertainty of the returns of commitments, or of convictions, as data to judge of the amount of crime committed in any district, was demonstrated in § 1 to § 4 of our Report as Commissioners of Inquiry into the condition of the Constabulary Force in England and Wales; but that uncertainty attaches perhaps in the least degree to the higher classes of crimes.
[47]. Mr. W. B. Robinson, the Registrar for West Hackney District, describes the condition of the houses where the greatest mortality prevails as “bad, with murky superficial gutters within a yard of the front doors. Supply of water bad, quite insufficient for health, and that only three times a week; cleanliness not prevailing. Shacklewell is, beyond doubt, the most healthy village in the district, or, I may say (after nearly 30 years’ practice here), within the same distance from London (two miles). The only parts of the district that are particularly unhealthy are the streets I have named, together with Hartwell street, Dalston; but all these require three things only to render them not less healthy than the other parts of the neighbourhood: 1. Proper and effectual drainage, and removal of superficial drains and gutters. 2. A constant supply of water, so as to wash away impurities in the drains, and enable the inhabitants to preserve a greater degree of cleanliness, &c. 3. That the houses should be kept in better repair, and frequently limewashed; and the privies should be more frequently emptied, and not allowed to run over; and that any stagnant ditch, within a certain distance from houses, should be covered over.”
[48]. Mr. E. Jay, Registrar of Hanover-square District.—Name any particular streets, courts, or houses which, from the number of deaths occurring therein, and the nature of the diseases, appear to you to be unhealthy.—“I should therefore say that the most unhealthy streets, &c., in my district are Oxford-buildings, Brownstreet, Toms-court, Thomas-street, Grosvenor-market, Grosvenor-mews, George-street, and Hart-street; and to these, perhaps, may be added North-row, and Dolphin-court, and Providence-court, also the north end of Davies-street, adjoining Oxford-street. I have observed small-pox always to exist, when prevalent anywhere, in No. 24, George-street (Grosvenor-square); and much sickness and mortality have occurred in No. 18, Oxford-buildings. Oxford-buildings consist of 18 inhabited houses, containing many wretched families, principally Irish labourers; it was improved lately, in consequence of the exertions of humane individuals, but is still the seat of great poverty and vice. The ventilation here is so bad, that even visiting the houses is a disagreeable duty, from the foul air breathed even for a short space of time. The supply of water is good, and the drainage is reported by those who attend to the subject to be perfect, as it is throughout the parish; but the bad effluvia show that there must be some defect in this point. Three families frequently live in one room, some of the houses containing upwards of 50 persons; many of them live almost entirely on potatoes and herrings, and beer when they can get it. Want of fuel in many cases in winter. Brown-street.—Occupied by the poor and working class; the rooms very small, badly ventilated, and cleansed; the damp kitchens, with frequently stone-doors, are lived and slept in. Living is bad, from the poverty which prevails here. Hart-street.—Many poor families reside here, often in great want. Tolerably well drained. Toms-court.—Contains eight houses; inhabitants in a wretched state in many cases, partly from want of employ, partly from intemperance. Small-pox and epidemics have raged here. George-street.—Some of the houses here are inhabited by working men of a better class, but it also contains others in a wretched condition, in point of cleanliness and ventilation, and much privation is suffered by the inhabitants. Grosvenor-market.—This spot is particularly close, being built almost in cul de sac; the houses are dark, badly ventilated, and most unhealthy; the food of some of the poorest principally potatoes; a large slaughter-house situated here adds to its unhealthiness; great want of fuel in winter. Grosvenor-mews.—Here the inhabitants are very thickly crowded, and among the children there is always much mortality; in one house, at the time of taking the census, there were 80 persons. The inhabitants consist of coachmen and their families, as do many of the mews in this district. This class is frequently intemperate: they live over stables, are ignorant of the necessity of free ventilation, and many appear to suffer in consequence. New comers from the country complain of the want of free air, to which they ascribe their deteriorated health. Thomas-street.—Some of the houses in bad condition, and inhabited by the poorest families. No attention to ventilation. Supply of butchers’ meat casual and infrequent. Pneumonia and bronchitis are frequently fatal in these poorer districts; and he who enters the damp, dark, underground kitchen, in which all the occupants live and sleep, in which the room is made more close by a fire required for their cooking, the atmosphere is loaded with moisture from wet clothes hung across the narrow space to dry, and probably some child ill of disease, sees that such a state of surrounding circumstances shuts out all chance of recovery in at least the majority of cases.”
[49]. Mr. G. Pitt, the Registrar of the Rotherhithe District, states:—“Hanover-street contains about 35 or 40 houses, in a very old and dilapidated state. The houses have generally six or eight rooms each, and sometimes as many families of the poorest kind, chiefly Irish. As the street has no thoroughfare, and is on an incline of at least 10 feet, it is badly drained. The water and filth constantly remaining in the street, it is most unhealthy. The same remarks apply in all respects to Spread Eagle-court, except that the houses stand upon level ground. Norfolk-place and Kenning’s-buildings are exposed to the most offensive exhalations of about 150 feet in length of open sewer, which receives the filth of the whole surrounding neighbourhood. Typhus prevailed here at one time to a most serious extent. The persons who occupy the houses above described are labourers, with uncertain employment, and their earnings of course irregular. Their food of the coarsest kind, with habits by no means temperate.”
[50]. Mr. W. Stainer, the Registrar of St. Olave District.—In what parts of your district has the number of deaths registered in the years 1838, 1839, 1840, 1841, and 1842 been the greatest, in proportion to the population?—“In the densely populated courts and alleys where there are open drains and sewers, and the inhabitants are living in dirt, stench, and a state of wretchedness to be conceived only by those who have witnessed it. Prior to the year 1841 several very unhealthy courts existed, in which some of the earliest cases of Asiatic cholera occurred on the first appearance of that disease in the metropolis, but these have been removed, and the ground now forms the site of the termini of the Brighton and other railways. There are large open sewers completely stagnant through or near them, the smell from which in summer is so dreadful that it is extraordinary how human beings can bear it. The supply of water is scanty. The inhabitants are not more dirty than might be expected from their circumstances.”
[51]. Mr. James Pursey, the Registrar of St. Mary, Paddington.—In what parts of your district has the greatest number of deaths occurred from small-pox, measles, scarlatina, hooping-cough, diarrhœa, dysentery, cholera, influenza, or fever (typhus)?—“Kent’s-place, Church-place, North-wharf-road, Dudley-street, Green-street.” And state generally the condition of those unhealthy streets, courts, and houses, as to drainage, supplies of water, cleanliness.—“There being no sewer, the drainage is bad. A good supply of water may be had if proper receptacles were set up. Filthy condition; Kent’s-place particularly; so much so, that the medical officer stated to me that he intended to write to the guardians thereupon.”
Mr. T. W. C. Perfect, the Registrar of St. Peter’s, Hammersmith.—“All that part of the district called Mulberry-hall, consisting of various courts and alleys; South-street, in an unfinished state; High-bridge, including New-street; Foundry-yard; Trafalgar-street and Henrietta-street; the New-road, and all the houses erected, and now building in Mr. Scott’s park. Always damp and aguish.”
Mr. W. Larner, the Registrar of the North-west District.—In what parts of your district has the greatest number of deaths occurred from small-pox, measles, scarlatina, hooping cough, diarrhœa, dysentery, cholera, influenza, or fever (typhus)?—“Chelsea Workhouse, Leader-street, Oakham street, Little College-street, Arthur-street, and Britton-street. The above streets are not supplied with sewers to drain the surface, and, consequently, the waste water of the houses is carried away by cesspools on the respective premises attached to each house. Generally supplied by water being laid on from the Chelsea Water-works Company. In general, a want of cleanliness. According to the returns on taking the census in 1841, it was found to be the case that very many of the houses in the above-mentioned streets (the principal of which are only four-roomed houses) contained 10, 12, and in some cases more persons; therefore, it may be inferred from those returns it oftentimes occurs that three, four, and frequently more, sleep in the same rooms in these streets.”
[52]. Mr. Edward Joseph, the Registrar of the Rectory District, states:—“Calmell-buildings, to which I allude, is a narrow court, being about 22 feet in breadth; the houses are three stories high, surrounded and overtopped by the adjacent buildings; the drainage is carried on by a common sewer running down the centre of the court, the receptacle for slops, &c. from the houses on both sides; the lower apartments, especially the kitchens, which are under ground, are damp and badly ventilated, light and air being admitted through a grating on a level with the court. At all times, but especially so in warm weather, a most offensive effluvia is perceptible everywhere. The houses are 26 in number, and rented at about 20l. to 30l. per annum; each contains 10 rooms, which the renters of houses let out to families or individuals, who in their turn in many instances receive as lodgers those who are unable to bear the expenses of a room; by such means an immense per centage is added to the original rent. According to last year’s census, the number of inhabitants in this court was 944, of whom 426 were males, 518 females; of this number, 118 were children under 7 years of age; 200 from 7 to 20 years; 439 from 20 to 45; and 189 from 45 years and upwards. The number of persons in one house varied from 2 to 70. Males employed, 261; females, 163. Total number of the working population 424, leaving 520 without occupation; the greater part of these were children and old persons, dependent upon parochial relief and the assistance of others. The following is a statement of the comparative mortality in different parts of the houses, as it occurred during the past year:—In the kitchens, 1 in 13; parlours, 1 in 37; first floor, 1 in 30; second floor, 1 in 33; attics, 1 in 12.”
[53]. Mr. A. Barnett, the Registrar of the Limehouse District.—In what parts of your district has the number of deaths registered in the years 1838, 1839, 1840, 1841, and 1842, been the greatest in proportion to the population?—“In those parts of my district in which there exists the greatest amount of distress, namely, the want of food, of firing, of water, also of cleanliness, both of person and habitation, and, I may add, of the district generally: as examples, may be mentioned the districts surrounding Jamaica-place, Salmon’s-lane, Eastfield-street, Limehouse-causeway, Three-colt-street, and the Tile-yard.” And state generally the condition of those unhealthy streets, courts, and houses, as to drainage, supplies of water, and cleanliness.—“The drainage is frequently altogether wanting, in most cases very imperfect; the supply of water insufficient, and want of cleanliness very apparent.”