The Express.
London, England, 1867-02-11 00:00:00

THE DWELLINGS OP THE POOR IN THE EAST

ENI):

On Saturday, at an inquest held by Mr. John
Humphreys, coroner, at the King and Queen Tavern,
Limehouee, some interesting evidence was given as to the
state of the poorer districts in that locality. The inquiry
was held on the body of a child five years of age, named
Emma Salter Hawkins, the youngest of a family of
seven persons living in • wretched wooden shed,
dignifasl as No. 10, Gunn-square. The mother of the
deceased said that the child was taken ill with
whooping cough three weeks ago and was attended
by the parish surgeon, and on Tuesday last she died.
She had been very poorly fed latterly, for her father,
who sold paraffin oil, was not able to earn much now.
This witness said that she had no complaint to make about
the place ; nothing was amiss till the very cold weather
came, and then the house was so cold that all the seven
members of the family, the eldest being • lad of 13, had
to huddle into one room and sleep in the same bed for
warmth. Then the deceased fell ill. The rent was 3a.
a week. Mr. G. Hurlock, inspector of nuisances, said that
he had frequently reported to she Board of Works the
filthy state of Gunn-square, and he said that No. 10
was unfit for human habitutiosi. The square was a
private one, and the board Bad no power to pave it ;
but it had been drained two years ago, and the tenants
did not complain of the landlady at all. Mr. James
Gill, an ex-churchwarden, then deposed that latterly he
had acted as a district visitor in Limehouse to relieve
the prevailing distress ; and in that way he learned that
there were habitations about Gunn-square. A more filthy
hole he never went into. On Thursday week, he went into
the wooden house or shed known as No. 10, and there he
saw the child in its mother's arms, evidently dying front
want of air and from the filth of the place. He sent for
Dr. Orton, the officer of the Board of Health, and for Mr.
Hurlock, the inspector. There was great neglect tame-
where. The stench of the wooden house was shocking.
There were ten houses in the square, and 66 people lived in
thew. Dr. J. Oren, medical assistant to the Lime-
house Board of Works, said that he inspected the
place last Wednesday. He admitted that the wooden
house contained " rather less" than the minimum of
300 cubic feet of space sanctioned by the Secretary of
State for each occupant. Even that minimum was too
little for health (1,200 was allowed in workhouses) ; but
if 500 feet were to be required, half the poor in London
would have to be turned into the streets. The housing of
the poor was a very difficult problem. The top sashes of
the windows in Gunn-square did nut come down ; but
there were hundreds of houses where they were fixed, and,
although that was illegal, he had striven in vain at the
police-court to have the matter remedied. The want of
ventilation consequent on the fixture of the sashes was
a curse to the poor. Dr. James Edmunds, 4, Spital-
square, said that, by order of the coroner, he had
made a post-mortem examination of the body of the
deceased, and had inspected the houses in Gunn-square.
The child died from rapidly developed tubercles on
the luny, the result of some ten or fifteen days' morbid
action. Witness found that the square was entirely un-
paved, the surface consisting of soft muddy soil, rendered
impassable by the first shower of rain. There were five
closets in the centre of the square for the use of the oc-
cupants of the ten houses, every one going to them
being exposed to the general scrutiny. On the top
of the dirty closets was one iron tank which sup-
plied the whole of the square with water by means of
one tap, which any child could turn on, and he was
informed that all the water was sometimes lost in that
way. All the surroundings were such as would I,n:-
dispose to diseases and to death. The wooden house con-
aided of three rooms placed on the ground, and covered
with a leaky lean-to roof of a mean height of six feet
nine inches. The Boors were on the earth, and were
decayed and damp. One room was provided with a
chimney that let the rain down, but would not let the
smoke up; it was on that account principally that the
whole family went into the other room during the cold
weather. The walls of the house were so thin that they
furnished very little protection front the frost. The
third room was not a room to live in. Rabbits were
kept in it. He found that the family of seven persons,
counting them as five adults, had a maximum of 123
feet of air in the room in which they lived, slept,
and ate. Of course, when the deceased got the whooping-
cough, and was therefore kept constantly breathing such
vitiated air, the lungs became filled with tubercle., and
death ensued. Dr. Orton said that there were hundreds
of houses where the doors were on the ground, and such
was the case in new houses now being built on Bow-oom-
mon, but the Board of Works had no power to interfere
I.ffeetually in such matters. The jury returned a verdict
"That demeaned died from disease of the lungs, accelerated
by the unhealthy state of the house in which she lived, and
the unsanitary condition of the neighbourhood." The
landlady of the square, addressing the coroner, said that
she could assure him so far was she from making a profit by
the houses, that she did not receive enough to pay the rates.
The poor people were unable to pay their rents, or even to
buy bread fur themselves.