The Sun.
London, England, 1850-04-02 00:00:00

CITY BOARD OF HEALTH

The following report of the Committee of Health
upon Mr. Simon's report was at the last court ordered
to be printed and circulated :
"To the Honourable Commissioners of Sewers of
the city of London.

" We, -whose names are hereunto set, your Com-
mittee upon Health, to whom on the 21st of November,
it was referred to consider the report of the medical
officer of health presented to your court on the 6th
day of November last, and to report our opinion as to
the course to be adopted thereupon, and especially
with reference to those matters recommended therein,
which do not come within the powers of the commis
sioners to carry into execution, do certify that we
have from time to time met together and have been
attended by the medical officer of health, and having
attentively considered the various sections of the said
report in the order in which Mr. Simon has treated
them, we beg to report upon them in the same order,
as follows :

" HOUSE DRAINAGE,
" Ist. As respects the question of house drainage,
we beg to say that we are fully impressed with the
great importance of this branch of the works in con-
nexion with sanitary operations; an importance
which your court has also recognised for several
years past in the most decided manner, as may
be estimated by the large amount of sewerage which
has been constructed within the city of London, in
order to facilitate the extension and improvement of
domestic drainage, and especially since the passing of
the new Act of Parliament, by the application of the
powers which the Act confers to enforce the
drainage of houses, and the supply of water for do-
mestic and sanitary purposes, in connexion therewith.
In furtherance of these views, we have endeavoured to
ascertain, as near to the fact as possible, the number
of houses within this city which are not drained.
There are considerable difficulties in getting at this
information, from the very complicated nature of the
private drainage of various estates and premises, the
work of successive generations of owners and occu-
piers. We directed your surveyor to inquire into
and report to us, which he did as follows :
" Gentlemen,—ln pursuance of your instructions
I beg to report approximately as to the number of
houses within the city of London that are drained.
" The number of houses and premises within the
City is assumed at 16,300.
" The number of outlets of private or service drains,
which stand recorded upon the books of this commis-
sion, as entering the public sewers, up to the 31st,De-
cember, 1848, is 6,814.
" This would appear to give 9,486 houses as un-
drained at that period ; such, however, is not the case,
and for the following reason :
" Although many houses have each a distinct and
separate drainage, yet such separate drainage is by no
means universal. In many instances one drain serves
the purposes of two, three, or more houses. In Other
instances courts of six or eight houses collect their
separate drains into one main drain, which ultimately
connects with the public sewer, and which is recorded
in your books but as one drain only. Again, a large
portion of the premises south of Thames-street is
known to be drained into the river, and are therefore
not entered upon your books as entering the sewers
at all.
" I think, therefore, that the number of houses
drained up to the 31st of December, 1848, may be
assumed as follows :
The number of drains or outlets connecting
with the sewers was
Ind the number of premises known by the
inspector of sewers to be drained by them
Adding to this the houses assigned to he
drained into the Thames, or otherwise, in
manner before stated
It leaves as the number of houses drained
upon the 31st of December, 1848 .....
Ind the number of houses undrained at
And as the number of houses drained during
the present year (1849) is about
The total number of premises drained within
the city of London at the present time may
be taken at .. 10,386
Leaving of houses undrained
" This will not give the number of cesspools which
have periodically to be emptied, which at present may
be assumed to exist within the city, as in a very large
number Of cases one cesspool serves for two houses,
and oftentimes for more, and in the poorer courts,
where there is a public privy, one cesspool only most
frequently exists.
" I think that I may safely deduct from the 5,914
houses undrained 500, and that 5,414 may be taken
'as a fair approximation of the number of cesspools at
present in existence within the city of London.
" The number, however, can only be accurately
determined at the termination of the inspector's ex-
amination of the houses.
"' In this number of cesspools, also, I do not in-
clude those existing upon premises having overflow
drains into the sewers.
" This mode of construction was formerly very
common, although not so much during later years,
and entirely introduced since you have had control
over internal works. The number of such cesspools,
I think, can never be accurately ascertained but by
breaking open the drains of those premises that are
suspected of having such cesspools—a work which ap-
pears to me almost superfluous, excepting in special
cases, such as complaint of effluvium, &c.; for most of
such constructions are in the better class of houses,
where they are securely domed over, where the conve-
niences are securely trapped, and where for the most part
they have water-closets and other appliances likely to
prevent inconvenience from them. _Vesicles which,
most of them having now been in use some years, and
it being more than probable that at the date of the
construction of the drain they would, I apprehend,
upon examination, be generally found to be filled
with almost solid residual matter—so solid that they
virtually cease to retain any additional sullage which
now may be delivered into them.
"' It is proper, before I conclude, that I should
state the reason why the number of houses within the
city drained cannot be more accurately determined.
Until the commencement of the present year, the
officers of this commission had no power to enter
premises for inspection, nor had the commission
power to direct the internal drainage of buildings;
but their functions were exclusively confined to the
sewers and such portions of the drains as lay under ,
the public thoroughfares.
When, therefore, a person applied for a drain to
a particular house, the drain was constructed up 'to
the front of such house, as required by the applicant,
and was so registered in your books ; but as to where
the applicant led the drain within his own premises,
how he constructed it, what other drainage he con-
ducted it to, your officers, having no power to con-
trol or to supervise, could not take account thereof;
and of such drainage the commission therefore have
no record.
"'For the same reason this commission cannot be
held accountable for the prevalence of so defective a
system as that of leaving unemptied cesspools upon
premiets with drains constructed beneath them.
(Signed) " WILLIAM HAYWOOD, Surveyor.'
"We recommend that your Honourable Court
should persevere in calling upon the owners and oc-
cupiers of property to effect these necessary works
with the least possible delay ; but more especially in
those neighbourhoods which are exclusively or mainly
inhabited by the poor.
" THE DISCHARGE OF THE PUBLIC SEWERS.
"In reference to the remarks of Mr. Simon, in
connexion with this subject, upon the propriety of in-
tercepting the contents of the public sewers before
they reach the Thames ; and, upon his suggestion,
that while the various plans for effecting this great
object are under consideration, the existing nuisance
caused by the overflow of the drainage on the
banks of the river, at low water, should be got rid
of by the construction of culverts, ao as to
convey the sewer water to beyond low water mark—
we beg to draw attention to the experiment making
by Mr. Moffatt, with your sanction, at the mouth of
the sewer in Puddle-dock, which, if successful, as
we trust it will be, may prove the first step towards
effecting an object which all must desire—the purifi-
cation of the river Thames, and the systematic
adaptation of the sewage manure to agricultural im-
provement. Meanwhile, we have conferred with the
committee fur navigation of the river upon the sub-
ject of the proposed culverts to the sewers, and they
have stated their willingness to co-operate with your
honourable court in reporting to the Court of Com-
mon Council upon the advisability of such a system.
Though pending the general inquiry now going on in
the Metropolitan Commission of Sewers upon the
system of drainage for the whole metropolis, and the
question of outfall for the same, we recommend your
honourable court not to take.any steps therein, but
to await the result of that inquiry, which will proba-
bly not be very distant.
" PUBLIC NUISANCES.
" In reference to the public docks mentioned as a
source of nuisance to their neighbourhood, we find
that they were formed under the provisions of Acts of
Parliament of a very distant period, and that it is not
in your power, as Commissioners of Sewers, to effect
more in connexion with them than to remove all im-
pediments to the sewage that may drain through
them, and to enforce the periodical cleaning of them
by the proper authorities—namely, the City 'sleds
Committee, as the representatives of owners—the
Mayor, commonalty, and citizens of London. These
public docks are three in number—Puddle-dock,
Whitefriars-dock, and Dowgate-dock ; and we are of
opinion that that committee should be requested to
exercise a vigilant control over them, so as to pre-
vent them from being made a nuisance and injury;
and we recommend that your honourable court should
suggest to the Corporation to obtain authority to fill
up these docks, leaving the river frontage to be used
as public wharves, as in a sanitary point of view they
are extremely objectionable.

0314

7,986

1,500

9,486
6,814

900