Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Report on the sanitary condition of the City of London for the year 1848-9
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48 HOUSES PERMANENTLY UNFIT FOR HABITATION.
Southampton-place and Russell-square!); that
behind the east side of Bishopsgate, in the very
small distance from Widegate-street to New-street,
there were 126 cases; that behind the west side
from Primrose-street to Half-moon-street, there
were 245 cases; that the parish of Cripplegate had
354 cases over and above the number, (probably a
very large one,) treated by private practitioners,
by hospitals, and especially by dispensaries. Similarly,
though with less perfect information, I am
enabled to trace fever to a terrible extent in very
many other localities of the City, even on the
verge of its better residences, and close behind its
wealthiest thoroughfares; in Plumtree-court, in
Plough-court and place, in Poppin's-court, Neville'scourt,
Blackhorse-alley, Union-court, Plough-court
in Holborn, Field-lane; in the courts right and
left of King-street, Smithfield, in Hanging-swordalley
and its vicinity, in Peahen-court, in Bell-alley
and its neighbourhood, in Priest's-alley, in Beerlane,
in Friar's-alley, in Bromley's-buildings, and
in the whole large space which stretches from
Ludgate-hill to beside the river.
And in most of these localities, in addition to
other sanitary errors, there predominates that particular
one to which I am now inviting your attention—the
absence, namely, of sufficient ventilation.
It was in districts such as these, that in the
year 1665, the Great Plague of London found the
readiest facilities for its reception; and it was by