“Houses were being built upon the soil—any soil, in point of fact—and the foundations of houses consisted very often of nothing but manure, and old boots, old hats, or anything thrown into it.”
The Medical Officer of Health for Poplar wrote (1873):—
“The continued rapid increase in the number of new streets and houses in various parts of the district presents many unsatisfactory features.
“In most cases, before the buildings are commenced, the gravel is dug out, and the hole filled up with so-called brick rubbish, but in reality with road-sweepings, the siftings of the dust yards and similar refuse. The dwelling-houses, mostly of the poorer class, are largely built of soft ill-burnt bricks, and are tenanted generally as soon as they are finished—frequently even before they are complete.
“As a matter of course the walls are still damp, the streets unpaved, and the residents suffer often very seriously in their health.”
The Medical Officer of Health described ten acres of houses in Hackney as “almost entirely built upon a great dust heap,” built, too, of porous bricks and bad mortar.
And another witness before a Select Committee in 1882 described how, in the other end of London—in Wandsworth—on an estate “which practically might be considered a small town,” the ground has been filled in to a depth of six or seven feet with filth of every description, and houses have been rapidly built upon it. The results to the health of the inhabitants were disastrous.
This, however, by no means completed the description of the evil condition of the buildings.
The Medical Officer of Health for Shoreditch wrote (1876–7):—