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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    Report of the Mansion House Council on the Dwellings of the Poor. The Council have to report a most successful and encouraging year’s work. The direct operations of the Central and Local Committees have been more numerous and effective than in any former year, whilst the effect of the Council’s influence upon the Local Authorities has been more strikingly visible than at any previous period of our existence. Quite recently, we have adopted, with great success, a method of enlisting the interest of the working classes in our work by inserting in the weekly penny papers short invitations to them to co-operate with us by sending us particulars of insanitary conditions. In one month we have had nearly one hundred responses to our appeal! There have been more prosecutions undertaken by the Vestries under the Sanitary Acts during the year 1890 than in any other year since they were passed. This is no doubt partially owing to the increased facilities afforded by the new Housing of the Working Classes Act; but it is equally, no doubt, the result of the agitation kept up by this Council. Two public inquiries have been ordered at our instance—one by the Local Government Board into the condition of Ham; and another by the Home Secretary into the present sanitary require- ments of Shoreditch. The former enabled us to prove our case against the Local Authority and led to a strong condemnation of the Local Board by the Inspector appointed by the Local Government Board. The inquiry at Shoreditch resulted, as will be seen by reference to the Commissioners’ Report (Appendix, p. 76), in a complete justifi- cation of the action taken by this Council. All our charges were proved and every one of our recommendations were endorsed by the