The dwellings of the poor. Report of the Mansion House Council. The year ending December 31st, 1890.

  • Mansion House Council.
Date:
Cassell & Co.,
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The dwellings of the poor. Report of the Mansion House Council. The year ending December 31st, 1890. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    THIRD DAY. December 19, 1890. On resuming, Mr. Thomas took Mr. Alexander through the remainder of the lists. Mr. Alexander did not think the sanitary work in the parish depended on numerical strength. He considered efficiency as of more importance. He did not confine himself to serving notices for remedies of the defects complained of by the Mansion House Council. He could long since have obtained all those defects being remedied from three or four months at the outside of the receipt of the complaints. The effect of that manner of carrying out the work would have been very perfunctory and very delusive, disastrous to the people living in the houses, and of no benefit to the owners of the houses or anyone else. He had given special attention in the parish to the matter of the drainage of the houses ; and, as a consequence of that, it was a fact that the deaths from typhoid fever had been most considerably reduced. He had from time to time made reports, in pursuance of his duty, to the Medical Officer of Health ; and he took an opportunity in June, 1882, of making a special report to the Medical Officer of Health. Witness was then taken through several districts of London with population and Inspectors, to show the favourable comparison Shore- ditch bore to St. Pancras, Lambeth, Newington, Mile End, and Poplar. He had found that moral suasion had been sufficient to secure remedies without recourse to police-court proceedings. In fact, he had been very successful in working harmoniously with owners, which had resulted in an immense saving of time. The last summons was taken out three years ago. He had made an analysis of the 288 houses with their condition at the time of inspection. This mistake in the columns was a clerical error. He would not vouch for the accuracy of the figures—he had to leave it to the Clerk—the Mansion House Council having given him so much work lately. It was not true, as stated by Mr. John Hamer in his letter, that the cases had not been fully dealt with; nor was it correct to say that the rest of the parish had been neglected. The Vestry Clerk had rebutted that in his letter to the Local Government Board ; wherein he stated that no less than 800 other houses had received sanitary attention. The Witness was taken at length through the various sanitary works executed by the Sanitary Department during the last ten years. With regard to the Foods and Drugs Act, in 1889 there were 97 cases, and 17 cases in which fines were inflicted. In the year ending March, 1890, there were 72 analyses, and 14 convictions, the fines amounting to .£88 8s. The Dusting Committee of the Vestry had made a recommendation to the Vestry that the present system of dusting and scavenging was un- satisfactory, and that an arrangement should be made for the work being done wholly or partially by the Vestry’s own staff. Cross-Examination by Mr. Corrie Grant. Mr. Grant : Mr. Alexander, you heard Dr. Parkes’s answers, did you not?—I did. Do you agree with his statement that there are about 300 houses now unfit for human habitation ?—200, I think he said. Do you agree with that statement, Mr. Alexander?—Dr. Parkes describes them as being unfit for human habitation