Report ... on the supply of water to the Metropolis.

  • Great Britain. General Board of Health
Date:
1850
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report ... on the supply of water to the Metropolis. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    22/340 (page 8)
    Proportions of Houses stated to be supplied. The Proportions which the Supply to Private Houses bears to the Total Supply, and the Proportions due to all other sources are as follows, viz.:— Company. Private House Supply. All other Supplies. Company. Private House Supply. All other. Supplies. New River .... East London Southwark and Vauxliall . West Middlesex . Lambeth .... Chelsea per Cent. 93 89 83 91 81 90 perCent.. 7 11 17 9 19 10 Grand Junction . Kent Hampstead .... Average per Cent. 87 90 94 per Cent. 13 10 6 89 11 According to these returns, the Companies supply 270,581 private houses. The total number of houses returned under the income-tax assessments for the metropolis, is 288,037, so that as far as these returns enable us to judge there appear to he 17,456 houses (or about six per cent, of the whole) unsupplied with water. Where house-to-house inquiries have been made for sanitary purposes, in densely populated dis- tricts upwards of 18 per cent, of the houses have been found to be unsupplied with pipe water ; but, in other large parishes and districts, only five, four, and three per cent. There are, however, returned by the Companies 1,181 cases of supply by stand-pipes, which each serve for several houses and often for a whole court or alley, which houses may be comprised in the Companies’ returns, and omitted in those obtained by house-to- house inquiries. With allowances for these discrepan- cies, we have seen no grounds to doubt the general fairness of the returns made to us, on these points, by the Companies. The following table includes the whole of the houses returned under the income tax assessment, and displays the proportion of each class of tenements, as denoted by the rental, to the other classes amongst whom the supplies are distributed. It furnishes the means of estimating the proportionate amount of contribution from each class to an equal assessment, and it displays how much more is to be obtained by lair general contri- bution than by charges on the higher classes of houses. It is to be observed, however, that a far larger propor- tion ol the houses in the metropolis are occupied by the labouring classes than might be judged by the rental to be so occupied, inasmuch as a large proportion of the two,