The Lambeth Cholera Outbreak of 1848-1849 : the Setting, Causes, Course and Aftermath of an Epidemic in London

275 Pages·2009·12.75 MB·English

by  Amanda J. Thomas

The Lambeth Cholera
Outbreak of 1848–1849
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The Lambeth Cholera
Outbreak of 1848–1849
The Setting, Causes, Course and
Aftermath of an Epidemic
in London
AMANDA J. THOMAS
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Jefferson, North Carolina, and London
LIBRARYOFCONGRESSCATALOGUING-IN-PUBLICATIONDATA
Thomas, Amanda J., ¡960–
The Lambeth cholera outbreak of 1848–1849 : the setting,
causes, course and aftermath of an epidemic in London /
Amanda J. Thomas.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-7864-3989-8
softcover : 50# alkaline paper
¡. Cholera—England—London—History—19th century.
2. Cholera—England—London—Epidemiology. I. Title.
[DNLM: 1. Cholera—epidemiology—London. 2. Cholera—
history—London. 3. Disease Outbreaks—history—London.
4. History, 19th Century—London. 5. Rivers—London.
6. Vulnerable Populations—London. WC 11FE5 T454L 2010]
RC133.G6T46 2010
614.5'1409421—dc22 2009039036
British Library cataloguing data are available
©2010 Amanda J. Thomas. All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying
or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publisher.
On the cover: J.D. Wingfield, Doughty Street, Lambeth, 1848,
the proposed site of the Lambeth Ragged School, watercolor
(courtesy Lambeth Archives department)
Manufactured in the United States of America
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Box 6¡¡, Je›erson, North Carolina 28640
www.mcfarlandpub.com
To the memory of my aunt,
Hilda Wraight (1921–1976)
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Contents
Acknowledgments viii
Preface 1
Introduction 5
1. The Catalysts for Change and Reform 11
2. Public Health: Common Diseases and Cholera 33
3. Migration 67
4. The Development of Lambeth 79
5. Lambeth and the River Thames 121
6. The Lambeth District Sanitary Reports 131
7. The Cholera Outbreak 159
8. The Aftermath 199
9. Conclusion 223
Chapter Notes 229
Bibliography 247
Index 253
vii
Acknowledgments
Centre for Kentish Studies, Maidstone, Kent.
City of Westminster Archives Centre, London.
General Register Office, England.
Friends of Medway Archives and Local Studies Centre, Strood, Kent.
John Snow Public House, Soho, London.
John Snow Society.
Kent Archaeological Society.
Kent Family History Society.
King’s College London, Archives and Corporate Records Services, Informa-
tion Services and Systems, London.
Lambeth Archives Department, Lambeth, London.
London Borough of Lambeth.
London Metropolitan Archives, London.
London Transport Museum.
Medway Archives and Local Studies Centre, Strood, Kent.
Museum of London.
National Portrait Gallery.
Ordnance Survey.
The Royal College of Physicians.
The Royal College of Surgeons of England.
St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, Archives and Museum, London.
Verulamium Museum, St. Albans.
Wellcome Library, London.
Susan Algar; Roy Beaufoy; Dr. Iain Boulton, Project Officer (Communities
and Education), Parks and Greenspaces, Environment, Culture & Community
Safety, London Borough of Lambeth; Heather Burnett; Stephen Dixon, Archive
Service Manager, Essex Record Office; Dr. Sandra Dunster, University of Green-
wich, and Kent Team Leader for the Victoria County History’s England’s Past for
Everyone (EPE); Elaine Gardner; Chris Green, Museums and Heritage Officer,
St. Albans Museums; Dr. Andrew Hann, Senior Properties Historian, English
Heritage; Kenneth V. Iserson, M.D.; Lee Jackson, The Victorian Dictionary; Lau-
rence Marsteller, M.D.; Cindy O’Halloran, Ms. Alyson Russen, Head Teacher,
Millbank Primary School, London; David Thomas; Georgina Thomas; Joe Ten-
ner, Handspring Design; Alison Turner-Rugg, Special Projects Officer, St. Albans
Museums; my family and friends.
Special thanks to my son, Alexander Thomas, whose help and advice have
been invaluable.
viii
Preface
Lambeth is situated on the south bank of the River Thames in London,
opposite the Houses of Parliament and Millbank. My interest in Lambeth and
the cholera epidemic of 1848–1849 began with a family history question about
the Osmotherlys, relations of my six-times great-grandmother and who had
migrated from the Medway Towns in Kent to Lambeth for work. I was asked
why I thought three of the family had died within such a short space of each
other. While illness seemed an obvious answer, I was still surprised to dis-
cover there had been a cholera epidemic at this time; the only outbreak I had
knowledge of was the famous 1854 outbreak and Dr. John Snow’s discovery
that the Broad Street pump in Soho was its source.
My first trip to Lambeth Archives to try and discover more followed, and
there the crisp and unfaded pages of the 1848 Lambeth District Sanitary Reports
gave vivid accounts of life in the filthy, narrow streets of the south bank of the
River Thames. Having been brought up near Rochester, Kent, and just down
the road from Higham, where Charles Dickens had lived for many years, I was
familiar with the famous novelist’s descriptions of life in nineteenth century
London. However, nothing could have prepared me for the reality of the dep-
ravation in Lambeth. Page after page contained matter-of-fact descriptions of
dark, marshy streets filled with muck, no sanitation and sewage spilling out of
overflowing cesspools, a lack of running water, cows kept on patches of waste-
land, pigs kept in cellars, and butchers disposing of carcasses and entrails in
open ditches. All the while the people took their drinking water from the River
Thames into which the detritus of their life freely flowed. There was no doubt
in my mind that the people of Lambeth could not have failed to succumb to
any epidemic which might have erupted in this period.
The attitude of the District Sub Committee members in the reports
appeared sympathetic, yet it was evident that little was being done to allevi-
ate the poverty in Lambeth. I noticed also that several of the reports con-
tained repetition, and wondered if some of their visits had even taken place
at all, or if the Sub Committee members had put together their later reports
in the safety of their own offices, away from the stinking marshland and indus-
tries of the waterfront.
Next I visited the waterfront area itself, though by this time I had already
started to read a little more about the history of the area. I approached Lam-
beth from Westminster Bridge, a wonderful vantage point to savor the Houses
1