Report of the Health of London Association on the sanitary condition of the metropolis; : being a digest of the information contained in the replies returned to three thousand lists of queries, which were circulated amongst clergymen, medical men, solicitors, surveyors, architects, engineers, parochial officers, and the public.

  • Health of Towns Association (London, England)
Date:
1847
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the Health of London Association on the sanitary condition of the metropolis; : being a digest of the information contained in the replies returned to three thousand lists of queries, which were circulated amongst clergymen, medical men, solicitors, surveyors, architects, engineers, parochial officers, and the public. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    widows on the poor roll,* have been made fatherless and lonely ?—who shall tell the number of convicts and criminals in our gaols, who have been sent thither by the negligence of sanitary measures ? SEWERS. [9.] Are all the houses and streets in your neigh¬ bourhood provided with sewers and drains ? The sewers and drains are in a most defective state in many parts of the Metropolis and its environs. There are streets without sewers, and houses without drains, and even where there are sewers, the houses are frequently without drains communicating with the sewers. Almost all the houses in Greenwich, except those which belong to the Royal Hospital, have cesspools, but have neither sewers nor drains. The public and private drains in Highgate are in a bad state, although no place can have greater natural advantages. In Hoxton and Bethnal-green there are but few streets and houses having either sewers or drains. In Penton-street, Pentonville, there is no sewer, and the drainage is so defective in several parts of the neighbour¬ hood, that, though situated on a hill, the water frequently gets into the kitchens, and the inhabitants are compelled to pump it out. In Penton-grove the drainage is so bad that many houses are unlet in consequence. Hackney-road and the Mile-end-road are partly without sewers. In the Commercial-road and St. George’s-in-the-East there are no sewers, and the kitchens, after heavy rains, are several inches under water, and when the w7ater recedes it leaves an accumulation of filth and dirt of the worst descrip¬ tion. There is also a horrible stench from the gratings. In the parish of Limehouse the sew’age is most imperfect; it cannot be considered more than mere surface drainage, because the sewers are not deep enough to drain the base¬ ment stories. The arbitrary mode of proceeding in the making of new sewers is a gross injustice to the public at large, inasmuch as * The number in 1840.