Category Archives: Council

1886 to 1893 Health Reports

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From Croydon Rural Sanitary Authority minutes, read in Croydon Local Studies Centre.

Health reports by Edward Marshall:

27/3/1886

Severe outbreak of measles & whooping cough 1884-85.

Complaints of injurious vapours & smells against Messrs Foster & Gregory, Chemical Works in Lonesome led to an inspection. He found no cause for complaint.

Death rate was 18.7 per 1000 and the birth rate was 38.9 per 1000.

8/3/1887

Inspected piggeries at Single Gate, Pound Farm & issued orders to abate the nuisance.

Objected to a horse slaughterer & bone boiling business proposed for West Fields, Mitcham. This was also opposed by the Holborn Guardians who have just erected a large Workhouse within 300 yards of the site. It was approved by the Board of Magistrates

22/2/1888

Epidemic of scarlet fever in Merton in 1887, possibly due to milk supplied by a certain dairy.

Complaint against a gut-cleaning operation in Pound Farm was dealt with.

Nightingale’s Cottages in Halfacre Row were condemned by a Magistrate’s order, after being reported as unfit for human habitation.

Scarlet fever outbreak in Field Gate affected sixty children.

2/3/1889

Inspected a bakehouse that was too close to a stable & suggested alterations to prevent contamination, and these were carried out by the baker.

Some Cottages in Evan’s Cottages in West Field have been reported as unfit for human habitation.

“The Piggeries” in Prince of Wales Road, Mitcham were again the subject of complaint.

7/5/1890

End of 1889 saw outbreak of Russian Influenza.

26/4/1892

1891 started with one of the severest winters on record. Six children died from whooping cough.

Two blocks, Ebenezer-terrace & Concrete-cottages were reported insanitary & have been repaired.

March, 1893

Year started with another severe winter. Flu epidemic persisted & also bronchitis & pneumonia.

Mrs Rumble of Pincott Road, Merton was visited on 22/5/1892 and had small-pox. This & other cases were sent to the Isolation Hospital. The last case was 27th August. In all cases clothes & bedding were destroyed by fire.

The supply of water from the Lambeth company is now almost universal in the district, but there are still some outlying localities supplied from wells. The water from these wells is being tested.

1897 House Numbering Proposal

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Mr. Chart submitted the following report on the numbering of houses at Mitcham :—

I beg to report on the numbering of houses in this Parish as follows :—

There are in the Parish altogether some 2,365 houses, very many of these are scattered and would not fall in with any general system of numbering, nor does it appear to me at present, with so many intervening spaces of unoccupied land, that a complete system of numbering such as is applicable to towns, could with any advantage be carried out, and if carried out now it would require very frequent amendment and alteration. There are, however, streets in the Parish in which numbers already exist, but which are improperly numbered and create great confusion in the delivery of letters, in the voting lists, and other like business, where the houses are too small to be known by distinctive names, and these should be taken in hand at once, and I append a list of such streets to this report. With regard to the general system I recommend such as one as is adopted in London (where all streets and numbers commence at the end of the street nearest to St. Paul’s), and in the Parish I should adopt the Vestry Hall as a centre, and number the houses in such streets as are to be numbered from the end of the street nearest to the Hall, taking the ” even ” numbers on one side of the street, and the ” odd ” numbers on the other. With regard to Church Road there seems to be some difficulty, as this extends as now named from Hall Place to Singlegate, the houses being for the most part on one side of the road only. It has always seemed to me that this road requires dividing by distinctive names before it is numbered, and the same thing applies to the London Road, which is nearly two miles in length. Perhaps the Committee will consider this.

RESOLVED — That the usual notices be served upon the occupiers of the roads and streets named in the report, forthwith requiring them to number their houses in the manner required in that behalf.

The roads in his report were:

Aberdeen Road
Arnold Road
Bath Road
Belgrave Road
Bond’s Road
Briscoe Road
Bygrove Road
Cavendish Road
Chapel Road
Church Road
Commonside East
Commonside West
Devonshire Road
Fountain Place
Fountain Road
Gladstone Road
Graham Road
Harewood Road
High Street, Colliers Wood
Homewood Road
King’s Road
Leonard Road
Lillian Road
Manor Road
Marion Road
Norfolk Road
Palestine Grove
Park Road
Queen’s Road
Robinson Road
Sibthorpe Road
Spencer Road
Walpole Road
Waterfall Road
Western Road
Westfield Road
Wilton Road

Source: 1897 Council minutes, Croydon Local Studies Centre