I subjoin a list of the names of the principal contractors and the parishes for which they are engaged:—
| DISTRICTS CONTRACTED FOR. | NAMES OF CONTRACTORS. |
|---|---|
| Four divisions of the City. | Redding. |
| Rook. | |
| J. Sinnott. | |
| J. Gould. | |
| Finsbury-square | J. Gould. |
| St. Luke’s | H. Dodd. |
| Shoreditch | Ditto. |
| Norton Folgate | J. Gould. |
| Bethnal-green | E. Newman. |
| Holborn | Pratt and Sewell. |
| Hatton-garden | Ditto. |
| Islington | Stroud, Brickmaker. |
| St. Martin’s | Wm. Sinnott, Junior. |
| St. Mary-le-Strand | J. Gore. |
| St. Sepulchre | Ditto. |
| Savoy | Ditto. |
| St. Clement Danes | Rook. |
| St. James’s, Clerkenwell | H. Dodd. |
| St. John’s, ditto | J. Gould. |
| St. Margaret’s, Westminster | W. Hearne. |
| St. John’s, ditto | Stapleton and Holdsworth. |
| Lambeth | W. Hearne. |
| Chelsea | C. Humphries. |
| St. Marylebone | J. Gore. |
| Blackfriars-bridge | Jenkins. |
| St. Paul’s, Covent-garden | W. Sinnott. |
| Piccadilly | H. Tame. |
| Regent-street and Pall-mall | W. Ridding. |
| St. George’s, Hanover-sq. | H. Tame. |
| Paddington | C. Humphries. |
| Camden-town | Milton. |
| St. Pancras, S.W. Division | W. Stapleton. |
| Southampton estate | C. Starkey. |
| Skinner’s ditto | H. North. |
| Brewer’s ditto | C. Starkey. |
| Cromer ditto | Ditto. |
| Calthorpe ditto | Ditto. |
| Bedford ditto | Gore. |
| Doughty ditto | Martin. |
| Union ditto | J. Gore. |
| Foundling ditto | Pratt and Sewell. |
| Harrison ditto | Martin. |
| St. Ann’s, Soho | J. Gore. |
| Whitechapel | Parsons. |
| Goswell-street | Redding. |
| Commercial-road, East | J. Sinnott. |
| Mile-end | Newman. |
| Borough | Hearne. |
| Bermondsey | The parish. |
| Kensington | H. Tame. |
| St. Giles’s-in-the-Fields and St. George’s, Bloomsbury | Redding. |
| Shadwell | Westley. |
| St. George’s-in-the-East | Ditto. |
| Battle-bridge | Starkey. |
| Berkeley-square | Clutterbuck. |
| St. George’s, Pimlico | Redding. |
| Woods and Forests | Ditto. |
| St. Botolph | Westley. |
| St. John’s, Wapping | Ditto. |
| Somers-town | H. North. |
| Kentish-town | J. Gore. |
| Rolls (Liberty of the) | Pratt and Sewell. |
| Edward-square, Kensington | C. Humphries. |
All the metropolitan parishes now pay the contractors various amounts for the removal of the dust, and I am credibly informed that there is a system of underletting and jobbing in the dust contracts extensively carried on. The contractor for a certain parish is often a different person from the master doing the work, who is unknown in the contract. Occasionally the work would appear to be subdivided and underlet a second time.
The parish of St. Pancras is split into no less than 21 districts, each district having a separate and independent “Board,” who are generally at war with each other, and make separate contracts for their several divisions. This is also the case in other large parishes, and these and other considerations confirm me in the conclusion that of large and small dust-contractors, job-masters, and middle-men, of one kind or the other, throughout the metropolis, there cannot be less than the number I have stated—90. With the exception of Bermondsey, there are no parishes who remove their own dust.
It is difficult to arrive at any absolute statement as to the gross amount paid by the different parishes for the removal of the entire dust of the metropolis. From Shadwell the contractor, as we have seen, receives 250l.; from the city the four contractors receive as much as 5000l.; but there are many small parishes in London which do not pay above a tithe of the last-mentioned sum. Let us, therefore, assume, that one with another, the several metropolitan parishes pay 200l. a year each to the dust contractor. According to the returns before given, there are 176 parishes in London. Hence, the gross amount paid for the removal of the entire dust of the metropolis will be between 30,000l. and 40,000l. per annum.
The removal of the dust throughout the metropolis, is, therefore, carried on by a number of persons called Contractors, who undertake, as has been stated, for a certain sum, to cart away the refuse from the houses as frequently as the inhabitants desire it. To ascertain the precise numbers of these contractors is a task of much greater difficulty than might at first be conceived.
The London Post Office Directory gives the following number of tradesmen connected with the removal of refuse from the houses and streets of the metropolis.
| Dustmen | 9 |
| Scavengers | 10 |
| Nightmen | 14 |
| Sweeps | 32 |
But these numbers are obviously incomplete, for even a cursory passenger through London must have noticed a greater number of names upon the various dust carts to be met with in the streets than are here set down.
A dust-contractor, who has been in the business upwards of 20 years, stated that, from his knowledge of the trade, he should suppose that at present there might be about 80 or 90 contractors in the metropolis. Now, according to the returns before given, there are within the limits of the Metropolitan Police District 176 parishes, and comparing this with my informant’s statement, that many persons contract for more than one parish (of which, indeed, he himself is an instance), there remains but little reason to doubt the correctness of his supposition—that there are, in all, between 80 or 90 dust-contractors, large and small, connected with the metropolis. Assuming the aggregate number to be 88, there would be one contractor to every two parishes.