The Sanitary Evolution of London

by Henry Jephson

With a view to secure fit and proper persons as Medical Officers of Health and Sanitary Inspectors, their appointment was made subject to the regulations of the Local Government Board.

The Act greatly strengthened the law both as to the prevention and definition of nuisances. It provided for the immediate abatement of a nuisance, not only where actually proved to be injurious or prejudicial to health, but also where it was dangerous to health. It gave to any person the right to give information of nuisances to the sanitary authority instead of that right being limited to the person affected by the nuisance; and it extended to a Sanitary Authority the power to take proceedings for the abatement of nuisances arising in the district of another authority should the nuisance injuriously affect the inhabitants of their own district. It transferred from the police to the local authority the enforcement of the provisions of the law against smoke nuisances. It dealt with the removal of refuse. It extended the previous laws as to the adulteration of food and drugs, and the inspection of articles intended for the food of man. It enacted that a newly-erected dwelling-house must not be occupied until a certificate had been obtained of the Sanitary Authority to the effect that a proper and sufficient supply of water exists; and made the provisions as to the occupation of underground rooms as dwellings more stringent and effective.

The notification and prevention of the infectious and epidemic diseases, the provision of hospitals, ambulances, and many other branches of the great subject—the health of the public—were legislated upon. Additional duties were imposed on the Sanitary Authority in the matter of disinfection; the practical result of which was that the whole cost of disinfecting houses, and cleansing and disinfecting bedding, clothing, &c., was thrown upon the rates. In several matters the option given in previous legislation to local authorities to administer the law was taken away, and the duty made imperative. Parliament evidently had realised the hostility of many of the Vestries to administering some of the principal provisions of sanitary law, and the word “shall” figured much more frequently than ever before.

The hitherto optional provision of mortuaries by the sanitary authorities was made compulsory, the need for suitable and convenient places for the reception of the dead during the time that bodies are awaiting burial having long been felt, particularly in the poorer districts, where bodies awaiting burial were of necessity frequently kept in living rooms under conditions dangerous to health, especially where the case was an infectious one.

Among these “shalls” was that most important of all health subjects—overcrowding—and the condition of the tenement-houses of London. In this matter the local authorities had through a quarter of a century been tried in the balance and found wanting, and it was enacted (Sec. 94):—

“Every Sanitary Authority shall make and enforce such bye-laws as are requisite for the following matters (that is to say): (a) for fixing the number of persons who may inhabit a house, or part of a house, which is let in lodgings; (b) for the registration of houses so let or occupied; (c) for the inspection of such houses; … (d) for enforcing drainage for such houses, and for promoting cleanliness and ventilation in such houses; (e) for the cleansing and lime-washing at stated times of the premises; (f) for the taking of precautions in case of any infectious disease.”

In another matter, which the Vestries had long opposed, their hostility was overborne. They were now required to appoint “an adequate number of fit and proper persons as sanitary inspectors,” and, in case of their failure to do so, the Local Government Board was enabled, on the complaint of the Council, to order the appointment of a proper number.

The new Central Authority, directly representative of the whole of London, was not constituted the chief sanitary authority for London, nor even a sanitary authority. It was given power to make bye-laws for the prevention of nuisances of various sorts in London, except as regarded the “City,” to license cow-houses, and slaughter-houses, to appoint Inspectors to inspect them, and also dairies and milkshops, and it could extend the number of infectious diseases to be notified.