How the Poor Live; and, Horrible London: 1889Sims, George R. (George Robert)
History
How the Poor Live; and, Horrible London: 1889
Sims, George R. (George Robert)
Poor -- England -- London -- History -- 19th century; Public housing -- England -- London
Mr. Wrack reports that, on visiting No. 17, Hope Street, Spitalfields,
he found in the room of the second floor the dead body of a child who
had died fifteen days before the time of his visit. The room, which
contained 1,176 cubic feet of space, was occupied by the parents of
the dead child and a daughter aged thirteen years. The body was in a
decomposed state. The reason assigned for not burying the child at an
earlier period was that the father had no means to do so, and that his
friends had failed to render him the assistance which they had promised.
Mr. Wrack having pointed out the danger of keeping a dead body so long
in the only room occupied by the family, application was made to the
relieving officer, and the body was buried on the following day.
Fifteen days! Fancy that! with the knowledge you have by this time of
the size and condition of the room in which the corpse remains mixed up
with the living inmates day and night. Here are two more cases. Note
the fact that in the first the child has died of scarlet fever, and that
tailoring work is going on around it--work which when finished will be
carried, in all human probability, with the germs of disease in it
to the homes of well-to-do and prosperous people--a class which too
frequently objects to be worried with revelations of the miseries of the
masses.
Prolonged Retention op a Dead Body in a Room occupied by a Family.
Mr. Wrack reports that, upon visiting No. 28, Church Street,
Spital-fields, on the 5th December last, he found in the second floor
front room the dead body of a child which had died of scarlet fever on
the 1st of the month. The body was not coffined, and it lay exposed on
a table in one corner of the room. The room was occupied as a living and
sleeping room by five persons, viz., the father and mother, their child,
a girl about three years old, and by two adults, viz., the grandfather
and grandmother of the child, who were engaged at tailors' work. The
child was playing on the floor. The room was about fourteen feet square
and eight feet high, thus affording only 260 cubic feet of space to
each person. The smell on entering the room was most sickening. Upon
remonstrating with the people for keeping the body so long unburied,
and especially for not having it coffined, they replied that they were
waiting to raise the means for burying it; and, being Irish, said
that it was not their custom to coffin their dead until the day of the
funeral. The body was not buried until the 9th of December, and then it
had to be buried by the parish authorities.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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