First Report of the Metropolitan Sanitary Commission (1848)
Housing of the Poor
It is the general practice to condemn the poor for the filthy state of their dwellings, in sweeping accusations that, "the poor are naturally dirty;" that, "they love dirt," and would not, if they could, be clean. ... The dwellings of the poor, in this parish, are, with very few exceptions, destitute of most of those structural conveniences common to the better classes of houses. There are never any places set aside for receiving coals; dust-bins to receive the refuse of the houses are exceedingly rare, and cupboards or closets are nearly altogether unknown. The privies (where there are any attached) are either close to the houses, or at a distance from it, exposed to the public view, or common to large numbers of houses and families. There are never any sinks. The fire-places are constructed without the slightest regard to the convenience or comfort of the inmates, and are altogether unadapted to successfully fulfil the purposes for which they were intended.
Air:
The air which is breathed within the dwellings of the poor is often most insufferably offensive to strangers. It is loaded with the most unhealthy emanations from the lungs and persons of the occupants, - from the foecal remains which are commonly retained in the rooms, - and from the accumulations of decomposing refuse which nearly universally abound. It is still further defiled by the products of combustion. In numerous instances, I found the air in the rooms of the poor, so saturated with putrescent exhalations, that to breathe it was to inhale a dangerous, perhaps fatal, poison.
Water supply:
The supply is, as usual, thrice weekly, and for two hours at a time, and at low pressure; the great majority of the houses are supplied with water, but, in an immense number of instances, the water is not laid on to the houses, but is supplied by a stand pipe in the yard. Frequently there is a stand pipe in the street, or alley. Sometimes, there is a stand pipe to two houses, but it is much more common to find a stand pipe supplying every three or four houses. In the courts, and alleys, and gardens there is, generally only one stand pipe to every 8, 12, 20, or even 30 houses. To many houses there is no water supply whatever, and the inhabitants require to beg it, or procure it as they best can. There are very few proper cisterns. With the poor, tubs, pails, earthen jugs &c., supply the place of cisterns. A very large proportion of the poorer tenements, those, namely, where there is only one stand pipe to many houses, have no receptacles of any kind, and the inhabitants preserve water in small jugs, open pitchers or wooden vessels, in their houses, or rooms. The laborious task of obtaining water in this way, leads the poor to preserve their water in tubs in their rooms, and as their rooms are very small, these tubs, to be out of the way, are generally thrust below the bed, and consequently expose the water in them to certain very deleterious exhalations. Not long ago, a child, on being left by its mother in bed, was found by her, on her return, drowned in the water-tub, which had been only partly thrust below the bed.
Drainage:
"Among the evils which appear to operate with the greatest severity on the condition of all, and especially on the labouring classes, are those arising from the absence of a proper attention to drainage. They prevail almost universally, to an extent altogether incompatible with the maintenance of the public health." (Second Report Com. Health of Towns.) A further illustration of these evils is afforded in the fact, that of four houses in Elizabeth Street, three have a drain under the floor, constantly emitting the most offensive smells. The families occupying these houses are far from well, that one, in particular, has frequently been visited with fevers, and illness, during the last six years, and that the mother and eldest child, have died in consequence; that the smells were so intolerable that the doors and windows required to be frequently opened, and that the walls are soaked with the damp from the drains, to the height of several feet; the children slept in the ground room. At No. 8 two of one of the families living there, have been laid up for months with ague and fever; and I have constantly observed in some of the houses close by, in the main road, renting at 40l. a year, effluvia dangerous to the health, arising from foul drains. An immense number of the houses of the poorer sorts, and nearly all those in gardens, are unprovided with drains of any kind. The inhabitants, therefore, are compelled to get rid of their fluid refuse, by throwing it on the gardens, yards, or streets.
Refuse:
in scarcely any instance, when the houses themselves are visited, and the yards inspected, are not collections of all kinds of refuse, garbage, ashes, dirt, decomposing cabbage leaves, and other offensive vegetable remains, oftentimes dung, and sometimes putrescent animal remains, to be found either abundantly distributed over the surface of the dirty yard, or piled into a heap in a corner.
Privies:
It is scarcely possible to conceive the utter degradation of the human mind which permits it, at least, to tolerate the disgusting offensiveness of these abominable nuisances, which exist in the form of common privies, in the poorer neighbourhoods. One open necessary for numerous families, and for 20, 30, or 50 persons, is surely most objectionable, but it is quite a common occurrence.
Many of the privies are wooden sheds erected over holes from which a surface hollow conducts off the fluid refuse to some other part of the ground. Many are most dilapidated, and some are dangerous to make use of. In numerous instances the soil has infiltrated the walls, percolated through them, and spread itself over the surface of the neighbouring yard; the soil has likewise percolated through the walls, and into the houses, and in some instances, the floors have been saturated, and have been rendered very quagmires of filth; the flooring, in such cases, has become rotten. In numerous instances, the inhabitants have piled either in their yards, or in their houses, or in the alleys fronting the houses, collections of dust and cinders, to conceal from the eye the soil which has oozed from the neighbouring privies or cesspools.
The disgusting and abominable state of the open and common privies, proves a source of much disease and domestic discomfort in another way; women and children find these places so repulsive that they avoid them, and retain, in their ill-ventilated rooms, their refuse; the utensils are seldom emptied on account of the trouble thereby occasioned; the air of the rooms, therefore, becomes most offensive, and deleterious, and the walls absorb the emanations, and render the abode permanently unhealthy.