[Report 1856-1857].

  • Bermondsey (London, England). Parish. Vestry.
Date:
1857
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1856-1857]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    4 1-4000 or 15 groins to the gallon of inorganic matter (prin cipally lime), in fact, it may be looked upon as pure river water, as the source from whence it is now taken is beyond all tidal influence, and I have ascertained that it is also subjected to filtration. The poor are already sensible of a great benefit, and speak with gratitude on the subject. As regards the supply, generally Speaking, there is no complaint; in some instances however, in the small courts the inhabitants complain that on the Sunday they arc without water. Now, during the summer months this is a great evil likely to be productive of sickness, as the dwellers in these courts are compelled to keep water in their small crowded rooms, which thus becomes tainted and unfit for human consumption. A. supply, if only for an hour on the Sunday would be a great boon to these poor people, and I trust that the Board will consider this subject of sufficient im portance to induce them to urge its necessity on the Directors of the Southwark and Yanxhall Company. There is one point connected with water which I cannot pass over in silence. as it neutralizes in a great degree the immense advantages derivable from its present purity as compared with its former state viz.,—that the receptacles for water are generally un covered, and almost always in immediate contiguity to the privies. Now it cannot be too frequently enforced upon attention, that thc foul gases evolved from these places are absorbed, or to use u more familiar phrase, mixed with the water, so that it becomes in a degree polluted, and as poisonous as if some of the contents of the privies were added to the water casks. A great amount of sickness amongst the poor is, I am convinced, traccable to this cause, and it is a pity that more can* and consideration is not bestowed by those interested in the matter. As regards the dwellings of the working classes, improvements are in many cases effected, in others they are in progress, while in many I regret to state there exist nuisances of a very serious character, calculated during the summer months to produce fover and other diseases; and should cholera un happily prevail, it will undoubtedly be materially aggravated by what I have witnessed in the course of my inspection. Old and dilapidated offensive privies, bad drainage, over-