BOARD OF WORKS FOR THE FULHAM DISTRICT. SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT TO 25th MARCH, 1873; SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF MEDICAL OFFICER OF HEALTH; ABSTRACT OF ACCOUNTS; &c.. &c. HAMMERSMITH: PRINTED BY ANDREW CHURCHMAN, BROADWAY. BOARD OF WORKS FOR THE FULHAM DISTRICT. SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT TO 25th MARCH, 1873; SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF MEDICAL OFFICER OF HEALTH; ABSTRACT OF ACCOUNTS; &c.. &c. HAMMERSMITH: PRINTED BY ANDREW CHURCHMAN, BROADWAY. OFFICERS of the Board of Marks for the Fulham District, 1873-74BOARD. FULHAM. Agar, Mr. W. F., Walham Green. Ardin, Mr. J., Sands End. Bailey, Mr. C. I. C., Fulham. Braid, Mr. W., Bridge Street. Cockerell, Mr. M., Dorcas Terrace. Curtis, Mr. S., Prospect Place. Downs, Mr. J. H., Union Road. Hooke, Mr. B. C., Edith Villas. Laxton, Mr. J., 1, Myrtle Place. Lammin, Mr. W. H. Shorrold, Walham Green. Nicolls, Col., Cornwall Street. Parker, Mr. C. J., Dorcas Terrace. Pitts, Mr. O., Beach House. Seymour, Mr. T., Fulham Road. Wright, Mr. B. T., Church Street. HAMMERSMITH. Braithwaite, Mr. T.,Westcroft Place. Beaven, Mr. S., Elvyn Road. Brown, Mr. G., King Street. Brown, Mr. J., Brook Green. Bird, Mr. E., Brook Green. Bruton, Mr. G., Latymer Road. Bogue, Mr. J., Down Place. Brooks, Mr. G., Shepherd's Bush. Chambers, Mr. E., Rosedale. chamberlen, Mr. T., Cornwall Road. Crookes, Mr. J., Brook Green. Cotes, Major, The Mall. Gould, Mr. A., Angel Terrace. Hunt, Mr. J., Old Oak Villa. Keen, Mr. J., Latymer Road. Keene, Mr. R., Mall Road. Mussared, Mr. W., King Street East. Osmond, Mr., Elm Grove. Slattery, Mr. T., Keith Terrace. Stollard, Mr. W., 9, WiltonVillas. SwiNSON, Mr. J., King Street West. Thompson, Mr. F., Shepherd's Bush. Wells, Mr., Brook Green. Wood, Colonel, St. Stephen's Road. Representative to Metropolitan board, W. H. Lammin, Esq. Medical Officer of Health. Mr. F. J. Burge, Gold Hawk Road, Hammersmith. Surveyor. Mr. A. C. Bean, Gold Hawk Road, Hammersmith. Clerk. Mr. T. E. Jones, Brook Green, Hammersmith. Assistant Clerk, Mr. F. Webb. Inspectors of Nuisances. Mr. J. J. Church, Fulham. Mr. W. Slater, Hammersmith. The Board of Works for the Fulham District. SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT. Seventeenth Annual Report, presented pursuant to 198th section of the Metropolis Local Management Act, 1855. The Board of Works for the Fulham District present to the Inhabitants of the District the following Summary of their proceedings during the past year, and an Abstract of Receipts and Expenditure for the year ending 25th March, 1873. In the Sanitary department, the Board have caused to be removed Nuisance cases as follows:— Privies and Cesspools empited, repaired, &c. 928 Drains and Gullies cleansed, do. 1077 Mouses do. do. 948 Swine Nuisances removed 347 Miscellaneous 337 Houses benefitted in Fulham 804 Do- do. Hammersmith 537 The Board have carried out permanent Works in the undermentioned places:— York Road,' Andover Road, Askew Road, and Norland Road North,—Footpaths paved and kerbed, and carriage-way formed; Blythe Lane, and from High Road to Masboro' Road, a Brick Sewer constructed. The Board during the year obtained a Loan of ,£12,000 from the Metropolitan Board of Works for carrying out certain Sewerage Works which were required in the District. Presented herewith is a copy of the Annual Report of the Medical Officer of Health, to which the Board refer with great pleasure, as shewing the continued sanitary improvement of the Fulham District. 6 BOARD OF WORKS, FULHAM DISTRICT. 5th June, 1873. We, the undersigned, having carefully examined the accounts and vouchers for the year ending March, 1873, do hereby certify the same to be correct. We have much pleasure in bearing testimony to the clear and accurate manner in which the Books of the Board are kept, and also to the readiness and courtesy of your Clerk, Mr. JONES, in affording every explanation we required during the progress of our labours. We find that at the commencement of the year there was a balance on the current account of £609 17s. 6d., and at the close a balance of £522 os. nd. We are, Gentlemen, Your obedient Servants, WILLIAM CHAs. SMITH, (Signed) THOMAS HAMER, JAMES CHAMBERLEN, Auditors. 7 Abstract of Contracts entered into by the Board during the year. Messrs. Long and Lockhurst, for the supply of the best gray flints, at 5s. per cube yard. Mr. Gale, for the removal of dust, ashes, &c., from the several houses, yards, and premises, in the Parish of Hammersmith, for six months, the Board paying him £350 per annum. Mr. Gay, for the removal of dust, ashes, &c., from the several houses, yards, and premises, in the Parish of Fulham, for six months, the Board paying him £300 per annum. Mr. Churchman, for printing and stationery, at certain prices set forth in the schedule, and embodied in the contract. Mr. Spittle, for the removal of slop and road rubbish and watering the roads for Fulham, £950. Mr. Gay, for ditto, ditto, of Hammersmith, £1,125 10s. od. 8 SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE MEDICAL OFFICER OF HEALTH. To the Board of Works, Fulmam District. Gentlemen, It will be satisfactory to you to hear that in presenting this, my Seventeenth Annual Report, I have the pleasure to assure you of a continued progression for the better in our Sanitary condition. Dispassionately taking a review of the improving aspect of the Fulham District during the seventeen years your Board's supervision has existed, and remembering the unfavourable condition in which we were placed previously to and up to the passing of the Metropolis Local Management Act, the most candid observer and critic must admit that a wonderfulimprovement has been achieved in all that pertains to the preservation of the public health. Not that I think all has been done which the advance in Sanitary Science has shown to be practicable, or even what the spirit of our prevailing sanitary legislation has contemplated and considered necessary to perfection, in the health preserving management of large communities. Whilst availing ourselves of the general bounties of Providence, we must not forget that in the history of man no such congregations of human beings for permanent residence have ever come together as we see at the present time, and that never since the epoch of our first parents did a greater responsibility rest on those who hold the reins of government than prevails at this very moment. Your Board, of somewhat forty members, have, for instance, the weal of nearly seventy thousand inhabitants in your hands; and the most indifferent amongst us cannot look on this responsibility with levity or carelessness. Disease, epedemic, or otherwise, may strike us individually with grief beyond description, and then we personally feel the power of the blow inflicted. In your public duties you have to, or at least ought to, carry all these influences into every action in your corporate capacity. To bring home indeed the wants of the great body of your neighbours to your own social requirements, and, judging by this standard, to act fearlessly and independently for the public good. It would ill become me as one of your officers to declare how little in this respect has been accomplished by your Board, but it does lie within my power and my province to declare at any rate how 9 much has been productive in my special health department of the good required of us. Yet you must excuse my boldness if, as your Officer of Health, I venture from time to time to point to matters requiring either institution or reform on the score of public health. With special reference then to the Fulham District during 1872, it may be observed, that although Small Pox lingered amongst us during the greater part of the year, no large mortality prevailed therefrom. Twelve deaths only were registered as occuring within the area of the Fulham District, but I have to remind you that under the power given to me by your Board, several cases were promptly removed during the year to the Small Pox Hospital at Highgate, and others by the Union authorities to the Stockwell or other Asylum Hospitals. Fulham appeared to offer a nidus for this complaint greater than Hammersmith, probably from its closer contact with the more thickly peopled parts of Chelsea, and the greater intermingling of its population, and more probably by its more facile river communication wtih infected parts. Be this as it may, the measures adopted by the authority of your Board seemed to give a decided check to the spreading of the decease, from which we may now pronounce ourselves positively free. I have to ask the continuance of your authority to remove any case of this disorder which may occur, and so prevent the spread of it amongst us if necessary. During the prevalence of the recent epidemic, I believe the prompt removal of cases to Hospital has been productive of incalculable good in checking its progress, and I trust the power thus conferred upon me has been exercised with discretion and to your satisfaction. The necessity and propriety of thus acting is not confined to Small Box alone. It applies to Epidemic disease in general, but more particularly further to Fevers and Cholera. It will be in your remembrance how much I have from year to year urged the necessity of some local Hospital accommodation for cases of this kind. The wards of the West London in common with all other general Hospitals are closed against contagious Fevers, and the Secretary of that excellent institution has been occasionally sorely puzzled in carrying out that wise provision. Hospital accommodation here then for cases of this kind we have none, but the London Fever Hospitals are available to our use under ordinary circumstances, and to one or other of these I desire your general authority for the removal of cases where desirable and practicable. But even the wards of these are not invariably available, for under extensive out-breaks of Fever they have been found full and overflowing. For any invasion of Cholera we are utterly unprovided in this respect as far as the public outside the class of paupers are concerned. 10 Reverting again to our sanitary condition, it is worthy of remark that the cottage property of our District has been brought into a considerable better state than formerly. It is true that much remains too old and dilapidated for perfect reformation, but the greater portion is now supplied both with water and drainage, and under the orders of your Sanitary Committee all will be gradually brought within this salutary condition. Much, however, as may have been the trouble and difficulty of raising the older property out of the mire, there is much of the new which threatens to be equally obnoxious. The speculative building in many parts of Fulham Fields is much to be reprehended and discouraged. I need only refer as an example to what is generally styled "Fulham New Town," a locality where the basements of the houses have been built below any available sewerage, and which has led to constant floodings of cesspool matter to the great danger of the public health. The neighbourhood of Wellington Road at Sands End, where a large number of small houses have been built, is literally without drainage. When shall we have a Building Act which will render such a state of things as this impossible? Of open ditches there still remains one in our very midst, "the Black Bull Ditch" an opprobrium and a blot upon our escutcheon. The continued drainage of several large Piggeries into this, renders its condition at times filthy beyond description. Indeed, seldom can it be said of it, that it does not teem with noxious exhalations. The Creek at Hammersmith, though much improved by the recent effort of the Metropolitan Board, is still a most objectionable receptacle of filth, and needs further remedy. Taking hence a retrospect of the past, there are many members on your Board who will remember the open sewer, with all its abominations, stretching northward from this spot to the confines of the Parish at East Acton. This formed a type of our drainage system some twenty years ago, now happily obliterated for ever and closed from sight. With the exception of Small Pox, which, as I have said, lingered slightly up to the close of the year, comparatively little sickness prevailed amongst us. Zymotic diseases could not be said to have even their usual sway. Fevers of every type contributed only 50 to our mortality, whilst deaths from Diarrhoea were certainly not above the average. No locality within the District has been specially affected with sickness during the entire year, neither has there been any outbreak of Fever traceable to defective drainage or water supply. Several cases of overcrowding in dwelling houses have been detected by the Inspectors, and these have speedily been remedied by the ordinary notices. 11 The Slaughter Houses and Cowsheds have been duly inspected throughout the year, and no cause for complaint of importance has been found to exist. Under the 55th Section of the Metropolitan Building Act, passed some thirty years ago, and before the Licensing System was adopted, all the private slaughter-houses of our District will, unless it be repealed, be done away with in 1874. No doubt when this Act was framed, the London Slaughter Houses were many of them in an unwholesome and even disgusting state, but the more recent Licensing and Sanitary supervision has to a great extent remedied that evil; and I cannot but look upon it as a great injustice to the trade, after the improvements which have been effected in them lately, to close them under the unrepealed power of a Statute passed so many years ago, and by this special clause which had virtually by more recent legislative enactments been considered obsolete. Beyond this question of the trade itself, however, lies one of greater importance to your constituents. How, in the event of the threatened closing in 1874 of private slaughter-houses in this District, are they to be supplied with animal food? Neither the Government nor has any other authority made provision by public abattoirs to supply their place, and even if they had, their advantage over private slaughtering places has been and may well be seriously questioned. I have myself given evidence before the Select Committee of the House of Commons on this point, and I have no hesitation in repeating my opinion, that the peremptory abolition of well conducted private SlaughterHouses in the suburban Districts of London would be a public calamity, and one which would tend not only to deprive the poor of a great facility for obtaining animal food, but enormously to increase the price of it to every portion of society. This question must engage the special attention of Parliament in the coming session. I am of opinion that in the crowded parts of this Metropolis the time has arrived when public abattoirs are more desirable, and even necessary, but in the outlying Districts they cannot afford an adequate provision for the wants of the people, and I trust your Board will adopt this view. It may prove desirable that your Board Petition Parliament on the question. I am desirous of again drawing your attention to the present imperfect system of Vaccination, and to the remarks I made in my last Annual Report on the unprotective quality of the Vaccine Lymph now being used. The total mortality of the Fulham District in 1872 was 1389, thus shewing an excess of births (2477) over deaths of 1088. 12 The deaths from Small Pox were 12, Measles 26, Scarlet Fever 20, Diptheria 5, Whooping Cough 54, Typhus Fever 5, Typhoid Fever 14, Continued Fever 11, Diarrhoea 89, Cholera 4. The deaths of children under one year of age were 405, and of persons sixty years and upwards 283. The deaths in 1871 were 1443, shewing 54 less this year than last, notwithstanding increase of population. The number of deaths in Public Institutions in 1872 were 88, and from violence of various kinds 59. One hundred and sixteen Inquests were held during the year, and of these several were on persons drowned, many of them whilst bathing in the river. I have the honor to be, Gentlemen, Your faithful Servant, FREDK J. BURGE, Medical Officer of Health. Hammersmith, 22nd Oct., 1873. The deaths from Small Pox were 12, Meales 26, Scarlet Fever 20, Diptheria 5, Whooping Cough 54,Typhus Fever 5, Typhoid Fever 14, Continued Fever 11, DiarrllA. 89, Cholera 4. The deaths of children under one year of were 405, and of persons sixty years and upwards 283. The deaths in 1871 were 1443, shewing 54 less this year than last, notwithstanding increase of population. The number of deaths in Public Institutiors in 1872 were 88, and from violence of various kinds 59. One hundred and sixteen Inquests were reld during the year, and of these several were on persons drowned, many of them whilst bathing in the river. I have the honor to be, Gentlemen, Your faithful Seraint, FREDK J. BURGE, Mcdical officer of Health. Hammersmith, 22nd Oct., 1873. BOARD OF WORKS FOR THE FULHAM DISTRICT ABSTRACT OF ACCOUNTS FOR THE YEAR ENDING 25th MARCH, 1873. Dr. general cash account. Cr. March 25th, 1873. March 25th, 1873. £ s. d. £ S. d. £ s. d. £ s. d. To Balance—Cash 626 18 2 By Disbursements on General Rate:— Receipts on General Rate — Works, Wages, and Materials I990I 17 8 Overseers on Precepts 22002 17 10 Establishment Charges 1059 19 5 Contributions 76 9 0 Repayment of Loan and Interest 5829 10 11 do. New Streets 2718 11 2 London School Board 1104 13 11 Temporary Loan 4000 0 0 27896 1 11 28797 18 0 Disbursements on Sewers' Rate:— Receipts on Sewers' Rate:— Metropolitan Board's Precepts 3779 7 10 Overseers on Precepts 8147 8 9 Works, Wages, and Materials 1113 6 4 Contributions 79 5 11 Permanent Works 2000 0 0 Loan from Metropolitan Board 6000 0 0 Establishment Charges 529 19 9 14226 14 8 Repayment of Loans and Interest 4401 9 0 Receipts on Lighting Rate:— 11824 2 11 Overseers on Precepts 5558 8 1 5558 8 1 Disbursements on Lighting Rate:— Erecting, Lighting, Cleansing, and Maintaining Public Lamps. 4992 0 0 4992 0 0 £44712 4 10 Balance at Banker's 522 0 11 Less do. Wages Account 24 6 10 497 14 1 Balance on Deposit Account . 4000 0 0 4497 14 1 £49200 18 11 ESTABLISHMENT ACCOUNT. Dr. Cr. March 25th, 1873. £ s. d. Salaries. Advertisements. Printing. Rent. Repairs. Law Costs. Sundries- To General Purposes Account, being 2/3 of £1589 19s. 2d., and paid out of General Rate 1059 19 5 £. s. d. £ S. d. £ s. d. £ s. d. £ s. d. £ s d. £ s. d. £ s. d. Medical Officer 162 10 0 162 10 0 Sewers' Account, being % of £1589 19s. 2d., and paid out of Sewers' Rate Surveyor ... 300 0 0 300 0 0 Clerk 213 6 8 213 6 8 529 19 9 Assistant Clerk 74 3 4 74 3 4 „ Surveyor 106 0 0 106 0 4 Wharf Keeper 39 15 0 39 15 0 Superannuatirs 41 15 0 41 0 6 Clerk of works 37 16 0 37 16 0 Advertisements 40 11 6 Advertisements 40 11 6 104 11 6 Prntng.& Stationery IO4 8 104 8 1 Repairs 270 10 9 15 14 0 270 15 10 '4 9 0 Law costs 131 7 0 131 7 0 Sundries 52 16 4 52 16 4 £1589 19 2 974 11 6 40 I I b I04' 8 1 270 IO 9 15 14 0 131 7 0 52 16 4 £1589 19 2 GENERAL PURPOSES ACCOUNT. Dr Cr. March 25th, 1873. March 25th, 1873. £ s. d £ s. d To Cash from Overseers 22002 17 10 By Balance brought forward 1213 10 1 76 9 11 Works in New Streets 20 67 1 1 do. New Streets 2718 11 2 do. of Masonry 455 8 8 Temporary Loan from Banker's 4000 0 0 New Tools and Repair 1 137 7 4 Balance 311 13 1 Cartage 1178 15 0 Watering, Slopping, and Dusting 3960 16 9 3722 15 3 do. Inspectors 92- 15 0 do. Unloading Barges 442 13 b Materials-Core and Gravel 582 13 4 do. Flint 2350 0 0 do. Granite 4553 2 6 Miscellaneous Works 358 9 3 Establishment Charges 1059 19 5 Repayment of Loan and Interest 5829 10 11 London School Board ... 1104 '3 1 £29109 12 0 £29109 12 0 LIGHTING ACCOUNT. Dr. Cr. March 25th, 1873. March 25th, 1873. £ S. d. £ s. d. To Balance brought forward 676 11 6 By Brentford, London, and Western Gas Companies, Lighting, &c 4992 0 0 Cash from Overseers 5558 8 1 Balance 1242 19 7 £6234 19 7 £6234 19 7 SEWERS ACCOUNT. Dr. Cr. March 25th, 1873. March 25th, 1873. £ s. d. £ s. d. To Balance brought forward 1163 16 9 By Metropolitan Board's Precepts 3779 7 10 Cash from Overseers 8147 8 9 Works, Wages, and Materials 1113 6 4 Contributions 79 5 11 Permanent Works 2000 0 0 Loan from Metropolitan Board, transferred to current account Permanent Works 2000 0 0 Establishment Charges 529 19 9 Deposit at London and County Bank 4000 0 0 Repayment of Loans and Interest 4401 9 0 Balance 433 11 6 Deposit Account 4000 0 0 £15824 2 11 £15824 2 11 ASSETS AND LIABILITIES. Dr. general purposes account. Cr. March 25th, 1873 March 25th, 1873 £ s. d £ s. d. To Amount of Liabilities 1451 12 6 By Amount overpaid on Preccpts 676 6 2 Amount overpaid on this Account 311 13 1 Balance 651 10 1 Unpaid Accounts, as per Invoice Register 463 13 3 New Streets Account 651 10 1 £2103 2 7 £2103 2 7 LIGHTING ACCOUNT. Dr. Cr. March 25th, 1873. £. s. d. March 25th, 1873. £ s. d. To Balance-Cash 1242 19 7 By Unpaid Accounts, as per Invoice Register 1227 17 10 Amount due from Overseers 1308 17 1 Balance 1323 18 10 £2551 16 8 £2551 16 8 seWERS ACCOUNT. Dr. Cr. March 25th, 1873. £. s. d. £ s. d. To Amount due from Overseers-Local 3272 2 11 By Amount overpaid on this Account 433 11 6 do. do. Metropolitan Board 4069 7 10 301 9 4069 7 10 4069 7 10 Permanent Works 2108 19 7 Balance 428 2 8 £7341 10 9