APPENDIX I. LETTER FROM MR TAYLOR, ASSISTANT RETURNING OFFICER OF THE WHITECHAPEL UNION, TO DR SOUTHWOOD SMITH; written at the request of the latter, for Lord Ashley's use, after their personal inspection of Bethnal Green and Whitechapel. 289 BETHNAL GREEN ROAD, Feb. 5, 1842. MY DEAR DOCTOR,—Lord Ashley, the Honble. Mr Ashley, and yourself visited the following places with me. I have arranged them in the form of a table: in one column is the name of the street, and, opposite, a brief notice of its condition, with an occasional remark by which his Lordship may recognise it. Apologising for the length of time that has elapsed since I promised to forward this account to you, I remain, dear Doctor, Your Obednt. Servt., T. TAYLOR. First Visit. Back of Chester Place. Burnham Square. Pleasant Place. Green Street. Baker Street. Digby Street. James Street. Open ditch and several pigsties. plied with water (all the houses on Road a perfect quagmire. Stagnant water on southern side and rooms, each one above the other. street. Another night-yard. Bethnal Green Road No drainage, many of the houses having Cambden Gardens. Lamb's Fields. London Street. Rupia Lane. Ann's Place. Houses built on the soil, many of them not being larger than an 8-feet cube, are inhabited. An acre at least of complete marsh and three open ditches-one on the north, another in the middle, and the third to the eastern side close to the backs of the houses in North Street. Undrained. Two open ditches. Open sewer in front of some of the houses. Houses at the back of The open sewer from Ann's Place passes Ann's Place. A group of streets to the north of Slacky Road. Warmer Place. Wellington Pond. A thoroughfare leading beneath one of the houses and then is again open to the houses at the back, but is boarded in so that Lord Ashley had to mount a boundary stone to obtain the view of it. All the houses stained with damp to a height varying from 1 to 2 or more feet. An open sewer in front of the houses giving off bubbles of gas very freely. A large piece of water into which the above sewer drains - gives off constantly innumerable bubbles of gas, and the stench is sometimes abominable. Persons who have accidentally fallen into it, though taken out immediately, have all died. The lucifer match manufactory faces this road, into which we all went. An open ditch in the most filthy condition. Green stagnant water on each side. Lower rooms all damp. An open ditch in front. Western end soft mud, into which the wheels of a waggon sank 14 or 15 inches as it passed. L |