Private property and public health reform in England 1830–1870

Abstract

British cities of the mid-nineteenth century were insanitary. In many cases lack of street paving, insufficient water, proliferating cesspools and open sewers turned them into cloying, degrading and offensive mires. Many of the urban workers, too poor to pay rent sufficient to meet the costs of these environmental services, were shuffled among damp dingy rooms into which the sun shone feebly and in which their physical odours were confined against any draughts. The relations between landlord and tenant were circumscribed by the indebtedness of the former and the penury of the latter. Water, sewerage and housing standards were left to the sway of the market while the effective demand for them was limited by low real wages. In the largest cities this filth was dangerous as well as offensive and public health reforms became ever more pressing. Yet the form in which this legislation was secured and the manner in which it was implemented were not as straightforward as this sketch of their crying necessity might suggest.