Mr. T. Barnes, the Registrar of the Shadwell 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?—“New Gravel-lane, and the several courts and alleys communicating therewith, Angel-gardens, New-street, and Labour-in-vain-street, Shadwell; Red Lion-street (including the workhouse), Upper Well-alley, Cross-alley, and Upper Gun-alley, Wapping. The drainage is bad; the supplies of water are insufficient. In these parts of the district the density of population is great. In many cases a whole family, consisting of seven or eight persons, sleep in the same room.”

[54]. Mr. Worrell, the Registrar of the Gray’s Inn-lane District:—“To ascertain and compare the healthy with the unhealthy parts of my district, I have placed against each street the whole number of deaths from all causes during the last five years. I have taken the number of deaths from a population of 5000, resident in what I consider healthy streets; and I have also taken the number of deaths from a population of 5000, resident in streets which I consider unhealthy. The 5000 occupying the best houses are composed of merchants, professional gentlemen, and the richer class of tradesmen; they occupy 728 houses, containing about 7800 good rooms; the streets are wide, well drained, and have a plentiful supply of water. The 5000 occupying the unhealthy streets are composed of the lower class of tradesmen, journeymen mechanics, labourers, and costermongers; they occupy 431 houses, containing about 2800 rooms, the best of which are little better than the worst of the 7800 before mentioned; the streets are mostly confined, the drains in a bad state, and in many places the accumulation of filth renders the atmosphere foul, whilst the supply of water is not very good. The number of deaths which I find in the healthy-streets during five years, amongst a population of 5000, amounts to 325; and, during the same period, amongst 5000 occupying the unhealthy streets I find 613. No doubt, many of the residents in the best houses go into the country, with the view of benefiting their health, and there die; but certain it is that many more of the poorer classes die in the workhouses and hospitals—so that, no doubt, amongst a certain number of poor, at least two deaths occur to one amongst the same number of rich. Having been a collector of rates upwards of 25 years, and, as a house agent, having had much to do with the letting of houses, I am thoroughly acquainted with the neighbourhood; and, having taken an active part in collecting and distributing voluntary contributions in times of distress and severe weather, I have been enabled to judge of the condition of the poor and their habitations, and I have always observed that sickness prevails much more in places where sewers and drains are bad than in other parts where the inhabitants are equally poor, but have more wholesome houses to live in. Any suggestion here as to remedy may, probably, be considered out of place, but, having had much experience as a Commissioner of Pavements, as well as in several offices of local management during the last 25 years, and having given much attention to the subject (an evil which, in my opinion, affects the metropolis to an extent little imagined), I have no doubt as to the means of remedy, and improvement in the local administration living perfectly easy and effectual.”

“In another classification he arranges, from descriptions of streets with nearly equal population, the highest in each class; the relative proportions, and average ages of deaths, are ascertained to be as follows:—

Population.Deaths.Average Age of Death.
Class 114329735
Class 2146511932
Class 3144815725
Class 4138620021

“The above statement proves that, out of a population of 1432 occupying the best houses, 95 deaths occurred within five years, 29 of which, at and under five years of age; and that out of a population of 1386, occupying the worst houses, the whole number of deaths are one hundred and eighty-nine, one hundred and four of which at and under five years of age.”

[55]. Mr. F. Hutchinson, the Registrar of the South District:—State generally the condition of those unhealthy streets, courts, and houses, as to drainage, supplies of water, cleanliness.—“The drainage of all or most of these courts and houses is exceedingly defective. About a year ago, for instance, I thought it my duty to complain to the local authorities respecting a privy in Hanging-sword-alley, that had been full for a great length of time, and could not have been used, but for a hole just below the seat, by means of which the fluid contents flowed into the open gutter. The effluvia from these houses arising from the defective state of the drains is most offensive. In some houses there are only cesspools in the cellars, which are emptied only once in from six months to three years. Water is supplied from the New River three times a-week for about two hours. In many of the houses, water-pipes have never been laid down, and in others the Company have stopped the supplies, in consequence of non-payment. Some of these places, and in particular Plumtree-court, are in a most filthy state. Offal, accumulations of dirt, and the refuse of vegetables, &c, lying in the gutters. The houses are generally remarkable for their dirty and uncomfortable appearance, and are mostly without any proper receptacle for dirt and ashes. The population is very dense; 15 to 20, and, I am informed, sometimes 30 persons, inhabiting one house, consisting of six rooms. The general condition of the population is very bad, particularly as regards the women and children, who are more confined to these localities than the men, the latter being generally employed elsewhere during the day-time. Many of the persons renting these houses suffer in pocket by letting lodgings to parties who never pay; and in health, by thus crowding their families, so as to induce disease and infectious disorders.”

[56]. Mr. C. H. Rich, the Registrar of the Mile End New Town District, observes:—“With reference as to the healthy and unhealthy streets in my district, I have been carefully through my books, and I cannot particularize any one place more than another. The drainage is very bad; the hamlet is drained principally by surface drainage, which empties itself into a ditch which is uncovered. It runs along the north side of the hamlet, which makes it very unwholesome; there has, within the last three years, been a sewer made (down High-street and Well-street), which has much improved that part of the district. The hamlet has been much improved within the last four years as regards the paving of several of the streets which were in a most filthy state; they are now under the commission. If Luke-street and Underwood-street, which contain about 50 houses in each street, were paved, it would be a great improvement, and no doubt beneficial to health. For want of proper sewerage, the health of the hamlet is generally bad.”

[57]. Mr. N. Bowring, the Registrar of the district Haggerstone West, specifies as the seats of the greatest mortality,—“Philips-street, Edward-street, Mill-row, Wilmer-gardens, and the upper part of Hoxton Old Town (east side), in which the principal diseases are typhus fever, consumption, inflammation of the lungs, and scarlatina. Two of those places mentioned above, namely, Mill-row and Wilmer-gardens, are without drainage; but at the back of the west end of Philips-street, south side of Edward-street, and at the back of the upper end of Hoxton Old Town, is an open ditch, almost a dead level, in which filth of every description is thrown. I believe it is under the management of the Commissioners of Sewers, but is seldom cleaned out; the stench emitted, particularly in the summer months, is almost intolerable, and is considered by the inhabitants as the sole cause of much illness and death. Drainage very deficient. Water supplied three times a week. The people generally of cleanly habits.”

[58]. Mr. George Pearse, the Registrar for the St. John the Evangelist District, thus describes the condition of the places in the lower districts, where the greatest mortality occurs:—“Great Peter-street, Perkin’s rents, Duck-lane, and Old Pye-street, are the most densely populated in the district. The houses in Great Peter-street, for the most part, are very old, irregular, and uncleanly. Occupied by tradesmen and small shopkeepers, together with labourers, mechanics, and others of uncertain earnings. The houses in the other three streets are often occupied by 10 or 12 persons in one room, most of them of the lowest grade in society, such as mendicants, hawkers, costermongers, lodging-house-keepers, thieves, and abandoned females of irregular and intemperate habits. Their food chiefly consists of salt-fish and other scraps, collected by the mendicants and disposed of to the general dealers. The houses are, for the most part, very low, filthy, and dilapidated, badly drained, and indifferently supplied with water. There are other unwholesome nuisances arising from the collecting and boiling bones, soap, and tallow, &c. Holland-street, Medway-street, Marlborough-place. New Peter-street, with several other avenues, surrounding an extensive waste (formerly the site of Marlborough square) oftentimes nearly covered with stagnant water. The houses are small, very dirty, and dilapidated, low in situation, without any drainage, having stagnant waters back and front; some in the occupation of the labouring class, and laundresses low in the scale, irregular in their earnings and habits. Many cases of typhoid fever have occurred here, and several recently. Rochester-row, Strutton-ground, and Artillery-square, are thickly populated by tradesmen of all kinds and others; they are without sewerage or proper drainage; the first having an open ditch through the centre for the greater part; and the occupiers of the latter are under the necessity of pumping out into the open street (generally at night) the offensive water that collects in the cesspools within their dwellings. Part of Vauxhall-bridge road, which is contiguous to Douglas-street, Bentinck-street and place, with sundry other small streets or places communicating with them on the one side, and Upper and Lower Garden-street, with Dean’s-place, on the other. The houses are small and numerous; inhabited by labourers, laundresses, costermongers, and others; without proper drainage, having open ditches and stagnant waters in their vicinity. Typhus and scarlatina have been frequent here, and several deaths therefrom have occurred within the last few weeks. In Causton-street the houses are small, populous, with courts or places occupied by labourers generally, and an open ditch in front. Ship-court, with Cottage-place, is situated very low; composed of small, ill-ventilated, dirty, dilapidated houses; thickly inhabited by labourers and others of very low and irregular earnings and habits; adjoining several large dilapidated premises, with extensive wastes or yards used as pig and cow-yards, or for the purpose of collecting slop-soil and other filth, left evaporating in the open air, without sewerage or proper drainage. Vine-street, with Champion’s-alley, York-buildings in Grub-street, on one side, and Scott’s-rents on the other, for the most part are small old houses, peopled by the labouring classes, with bad drainage, and the wharfs in Millbank-street, for the deposit of slop-soil and other nuisance.”

[59]. Mr. J. Verrall, the Registrar of the St. John’s District.—“The following places appear to me to be unhealthy from the absence of all habit of cleanliness in most of the inhabitants; the want of drainage; the ruinous condition of the houses; the number of lay-stalls, in which filth of all kinds is accumulated, and the number of pigs kept in the neighbourhood,—King-street, Queen-street, Gold-street, Ship-street, Hilliard’s court, and Pruson’s island. In the following places (in addition to the foregoing) the houses appear unhealthily crowded and very dirty, with inadequate means of ventilation, namely, Church’s-gardens, New-court, Crown-place, Miner-court, Macord’s-rents, Ellis-court, Petrie-court, Hampton-court, Rycroft’s-court, and Matthew’s-court.”