PUBLIC SERVICES
WATER SUPPLY.
Until the 19th century
Bethnal Green relied on springs or wells. There
was a conduit and lead pipes in Conduit close,
part of Pyotts on the east side of Cambridge
Heath, by 1601. (fn. 79) According to an 18th-century
owner, the close contained a spring dedicated to
St. Winifred in 1160 within a Gothic building
from which copper pipes led to neighbouring
villages and a monastery. (fn. 80) The building may
have been erected by the Austin Friars to whom
Richard II granted in 1394 land with a spring
on Cambridge Heath, with permission to enclose
it and bring water by conduit to their house in
London. (fn. 81) In 1760 the 'conduit' was marked in
the north of Conduit close. (fn. 82) The spring was
sealed and the Gothic building pulled down
when 'Bow water was laid into Bethnal Green',
presumably in 1807. (fn. 83)
Simcock's or Sincook's well in the Great Hyde,
mentioned c. 1399, (fn. 84) supplied the hospital of St.
Mary without Bishopsgate before the Dissolution (fn. 85) and was there in the 1570s. (fn. 86) It may have
been a well found in Old Nichol Street during
work on the Boundary Street estate in the
1890s. (fn. 87)
By 1547 a well and conduit were 'of common
use to the inhabitants' on the waste on the
east side of the green, in front of the later
Kirby's Castle. Enclosed with a brick wall, it
was apparently the main village well until 1652
or later. (fn. 88)
Another 'spring or conduit head', in Markhams
field on the west side of Cambridge Road, was
granted in 1567 to William Paulet, marquess of
Winchester, with the right to lay pipes to his
house in London, formerly of the Austin Friars
to whom the watercourse was said to have
belonged. (fn. 89) The conduit, mentioned in 1652 (fn. 90)
and marked in 1703 as the 'High Fountain' in
the south-west corner of Sebrights, was too far
from Cambridge Heath to have been the alleged
spring of 1394. (fn. 91)
In 1723 a lessee of part of Bishop's Hall found
plentiful springs and installed a well and pump, (fn. 92)
although presumably there had been a supply
at the manor house from the Middle Ages. A
27-ft. deep well, found in the garden of St. James
the Less Vicarage, (fn. 93) may have served the farm
buildings east of Bishop's Hall.
In 1807 Bethnal Green was among those parishes
which, 'become very populous', did not have a
sufficient supply of good water. An Act then set
up the East London Water Co. and empowered
it to draw upon the Lea and build waterworks
and reservoirs at Old Ford. (fn. 94) In 1811 Bethnal
Green village and its vicinity were said to be
properly supplied. (fn. 95) The company was laying
large pipes in the parish to connect with its main
reservoir at Old Ford in 1827 (fn. 96) but it could not
keep pace with the spread of building. By 1848
the water was said to be generally good but it
was supplied only thrice a week for two hours
at a time and many houses were not connected.
Wells and standpipes, serving older houses, were
often contaminated. (fn. 97)
An investigation in 1863 occasioned by the
deaths of 12 children in Hollybush Gardens
revealed that all but 3 out of 222 houses relied
on a static tank and defective pump. Nichol
Street had no supply. (fn. 98) Cholera in 1866 was
associated with contamination by sewage from
the Lea. (fn. 99) By 1867 the East London Co. supplied
northern Bethnal Green from Lea Bridge and
the rest of the parish from Old Ford works.
Newer streets were supplied continuously and
others for about 30 minutes a day. (fn. 1) In 1875 the
company promised a constant supply to parts of
Bethnal Green (fn. 2) but there were still streets with
no water for their W.C.s in 1887. (fn. 3) The company
was taken over by the Metropolitan Water Board
in 1904. (fn. 4)
SEWERAGE.
Drainage ditches or common
sewers were recorded by 1660 near Kirby's
Castle, (fn. 5) by the 1670s next to Shoreditch
cemetery, (fn. 6) and by 1703 as forming the boundary
between Bethnal Green and Mile End New
Town. (fn. 7) Called Spitalfields sewer, the last was the
responsibility of Tower Hamlets commission
of sewers, to which Bethnal Green was assessed
by 1723. (fn. 8) Until 1815 houses were supposed to
discharge sewage only into cesspools. (fn. 9) A catgut manufacturer was presented in 1831 for
polluting the sewer in Haresmarsh, presumably
the main Spitalfields sewer. (fn. 10) Although the
growth of building overburdened the existing
system, the vestry opposed the commissioners'
proposals for new sewers in 1826 because of the
alarming expense. (fn. 11)
Fever around Lamb's Fields was attributed in
1838 to an area of stagnant water covering 700
ft. by 300 ft. and encircled by an open ditch into
which the privies of North Street drained. (fn. 12) A
gutter in the centre of Virginia Row received all
the waste from the Nichol and Nova Scotia: in
1846 the London City Mission abandoned the
Nichol after all its missionaries had succumbed
to disease caused by the absence of sewers. (fn. 13) A
detailed report in 1848 (fn. 14) castigated Tower Hamlets
commission of sewers and found that there were
fewer than 8 miles of sewerage in the parish.
Besides the old Spitalfields sewer and an ancient
sewer along the east side of the green, part of
which was open, there was a west-east sewer
flowing into them from Shoreditch church along
Castle and Virginia streets, Wellington Row,
and Old Bethnal Green Road, and also east-west
sewerage from Bonner's Fields and Green
Street. Other sewers formed short stretches but
there were none along Bethnal Green Road,
Brick Lane, parts of Hackney Road, or the
western and most densely built-up part of
Cambridge Road. In 1847 house drainage into
sewers was made compulsory (fn. 15) but in 1848 only
9 per cent of streets and courts were listed as
sewered. In 1850 only 12 houses were connected
to a sewer which had been laid a few years earlier
between Pollard Row and Shoreditch church.
Cesspools were seldom cleared and one open
privy could serve 50 people. (fn. 16) In Town district
only two houses had water closets.
The Metropolitan commission of sewers replaced Tower Hamlets commission in 1847 (fn. 17) and
contracted out the construction of sewers from
1851, (fn. 18) including brick sewers for the rest of Hackney Road and Cambridge Road in 1853. (fn. 19) Sewers
were supplied to the Nichol in 1854-5 (fn. 20) although
houses were still not connected to them in 1863. (fn. 21)
The Metropolis Local Management Act of 1855 (fn. 22)
divided responsibility between the vestry and the
M.B.W., whose main middle-level intercepting
sewer along Bethnal Green Road and Green Street
was built between 1861 and 1864. (fn. 23) The board
contracted for over a mile of brick sewer and the
reconstruction of existing sewers in southern
Bethnal Green in 1867. (fn. 24) The vestry by 1857 had
effected a great improvement with many houses
connected, the open sewer behind Hackney Road
arched in, and the ditch in Lamb's Fields replaced
by a pipe. (fn. 25) In 1863 Bethnal Green had 44 miles of
streets, of which 30 miles were drained by the vestry,
including 17 miles constructed since 1856. The
surveyor's plan to drain every street awaited completion of the main intercepting sewer. (fn. 26) A contract
for stoneware pipes was given at the end of 1863 to
Cole & Son for 48 undrained streets. (fn. 27) By 1872
'almost all houses' had been drained, mostly at the
owners' cost, and between 1856 and 1872 13½ miles
of pipe and 2½ miles of brick sewers had been laid. (fn. 28)
By 1887 another three miles had been built by the
vestry, (fn. 29) which was castigated in 1898 for leaving a
defective sewer open for a fortnight. (fn. 30)
For storm relief between 1881 and 1884 the
M.B.W. built the high-level and Ratcliff relief
sewer along the line of Cambridge Road and
from 1921 to 1928 its successor, the L.C.C., built
the North-Eastern relief sewer from Hackney
Road across Bethnal Green Road to Whitechapel
Road and beyond. (fn. 31) In the 1930s the M.B.
considered reconstructing the sewers to relieve
unemployment. (fn. 32)
MEDICAL SERVICES.
Among the earliest
officers of the new parish were a woman searcher,
appointed in 1749, (fn. 33) and a surgeon and apothecary
for the workhouse, whose replacement in 1753 was
to be paid £20 a year, to live in the parish, and to
attend all 'except broken limbs, midwifery and
persons who are foul'. (fn. 34) In 1790 the appointment
of searchers was disputed between the vestry and
the J.P.s. (fn. 35) Two women searchers were listed as
parish officers in 1800, (fn. 36) but parish midwives
were mentioned only when accused of incompetence in 1831 (fn. 37) and of drunkenness in 1832. (fn. 38) In
1793 the office of surgeon and apothecary was held
by a firm (Gilson & Bliss) (fn. 39) and from 1812 it was
held by Frederick Agar, from 1817 assisted by his
son. (fn. 40) A Frederick Agar still held the office in
1849. (fn. 41) Agar asked for salary increases in 1825 and
1831, claiming that in 1830 he had 2,000 tickets
to attend the outdoor sick besides those in the
workhouse and that he had to buy drugs himself. (fn. 42)
In 1818 the vestry paid 10 guineas to the fever
hospital at Battle Bridge for the care of its sick
poor. (fn. 43) In 1827 it opposed the building of a new
lunatic asylum for the metropolis on the ground
of expense. (fn. 44) There were many cases of fever,
probably cholera, especially in the workhouse, in
1831 (fn. 45) when the vestry temporarily accepted the
government's advice to establish a local board of
health, which in November was actively clearing
'nuisances', the breeding ground of cholera. (fn. 46) The
vestry allocated £160 a year for the duties of
surgeon and apothecary and, in addition to Agar,
employed a doctor for the outdoor poor of Green
and Hackney Road divisions and another for
Church and Town divisions. (fn. 47) The board spent
most of the £2000 granted by the government for
a cholera hospital, which was never built, a balance
of £100 being used before 1859, supposedly during
one of the later cholera outbreaks. (fn. 48)
Cholera returned in 1837-8 and in the quarter ending Lady Day 1838 the three doctors
attended 521 cases and sent 26 to the London
Fever hospital. There had been 2,084 cases of
'fever' in the parish in 1837 and it was recognized that in many parts sickness was always
present because of bad drainage and sewerage. (fn. 49) In 1841 poorly drained houses in
Bethnal Green Road and Cambridge Road
were sometimes flooded to 2 ft. It was said that
effective drainage might have prevented the
1,700 cases of fever 'arising from miasma'
treated by the parish surgeon alone in 1838. (fn. 50)
A death from cholera at a sweep's house by the
canal near Pritchard's Road in 1848 was directly
attributable to an immense dunghill; filth along
the banks, condemned by 13 local doctors but
left through the 'supineness or wilful neglect of
the parish officers', was the alleged cause of
typhus, scarlatina, and other fevers. (fn. 51) In the
year ending October 1847 the five medical
officers of health (recte district medical officers),
attended 1,590 cases of zymotic disease, 119 of
them fatal; 560 were cases of diarrhoea and 532 of
'typhus'. The average age of death was 26.6, having
been 25.8 in 1839. More than a quarter of deaths were
from epidemic disease, mostly of young children. (fn. 52)
Gavin's survey, published in 1848, conclusively
linked the physical environment, for which he
overworked such adjectives as filthy and abominable, with disease: 'typhus' from open privies and
livestock in Paradise Row, (fn. 53) epidemics in the
Nichol and Greengate Gardens, (fn. 54) and rheumatism
and respiratory illness in the damp houses between
Bethnal Green Road and Three Colts Lane (fn. 55) or in
the oldest, south-west, part of the parish. (fn. 56) Cholera struck immediately after the report, causing
27 deaths in 1848 and a further 752 in 1849,
mostly in Hackney Road and Town districts and
including 211 in the Nichol in 16 days. Two fever
wards in the workhouse received cases from the
parish at large but the Board of Health found
facilities 'totally inadequate'. It ordered the immediate appointment of an assistant for Agar, four
medical visitors, nurses, two inspectors of nuisances, and lime washers; there should be more
beds in the infirmary and full-time dispensaries
in each affected locality. (fn. 57) After five days the
parish appointed one medical officer and one
inspector of nuisances, ignoring the other instructions. (fn. 58) Gavin, however, as medical
superintendent of the district, began visiting
and reduced the mortality by 43 per cent in the
worst area; 4,845 people received free medical
relief in 54 days. (fn. 59)
The cholera outbreak of 1849 was the worst, with
a death-rate of 90 for 10,000 inhabitants compared
with 50 in 1832-3. It returned in 1854 when the
death-rate was 20 and again in 1866 when it was
60.4. (fn. 60) Of the 3,824 deaths in 1866, 614 were from
cholera and 181 from diarrhoea. (fn. 61) Although their
causes were pointed out, there remained no hospital
other than the workhouse. The five district medical
officers provided free medicine and vaccination,
treating 5,026 poor outside the workhouse, sick from
all causes, in 1856-7. (fn. 62) Infant mortality was particularly high: deaths of children under 5 were 52 per
cent in 1858, 60 per cent in 1862, 56 per cent in
1869-70, 51.5 per cent in 1896, and 49.7 per cent
in 1898. An additional threat, according to the
medical officer in 1893, was the 'colossal ignorance
of working-class women on the subject of infant
feeding'. (fn. 63)
In 1884 chest disease and rheumatism were
common around Hague Street due to the damp
caused by dilapidation and by laundering and
sleeping in the same room. (fn. 64) Disease was still
especially prevalent in the overcrowded Nichol
in 1891. (fn. 65) In 1916 a council committee recommended the establishment of a tuberculosis
dispensary in an agreement with the City of
London Chest hospital. The M.B.'s provision
for mothers and babies consisted of an inadequate shelter at no. 3 St. James's Road in 1917,
when it was resolved to appoint, temporarily, a
'lady M.D.' as assistant medical officer of health
with responsibility for maternity and child welfare, and to rent no. 505 Hackney Road for 3
years as a centre. Similar centres were then being
contemplated by King Edward Institution, Spitalfields, in Green Street and by Queen's
Children's hospital. (fn. 66) The council had agreed
with the chest hospital to employ a tuberculosis health visitor and operate a dispensary with
two medical officers by 1925, when it employed
several visitors and ran welfare centres for mothers and infants. The main centre, with a
dispensary and a planned dental clinic, was in
Cornwall Road; another centre was in rented
premises at Thornton hall in Mount Street. The
council also employed a midwife and wanted a
municipal maternity home and day nursery in
the borough. It had convalescent homes in Berkshire and Buckinghamshire. Home nursing was
provided by Shoreditch and Bethnal Green
Nursing Association. (fn. 67) St. James the Less medical
mission and dispensary existed in St. James's Road
in 1935. (fn. 68) The infant welfare centre in Cornwall
Avenue (formerly Road) survived in 1950. (fn. 69) Bethnal
Green health centre was built in Florida Street
under the L.B.'s plan of 1986. (fn. 70)
Bethnal House lunatic asylum (fn. 71) opened as a
private madhouse in Kirby's Castle between
its lease to Matthew Wright in 1726 (fn. 72) and the
escape of Alexander Cruden (d. 1770), compiler of a biblical concordance, who sued
Wright for false imprisonment, in 1738. (fn. 73) The
building, extended and by 1777 stuccoed and
called the White House, in 1800 was purchased
by Thomas Warburton, who already owned a
more select asylum in Hackney. Like other
private asylums, Warburton's housed paupers
paid for by their parish. It had 300 inmates,
costing 9s. 6d.-10s. a head a week, in 1815 (fn. 74)
and 933, of whom 654 were paupers, in 18291830. By 1831 Warburton had built the Red
House for men, the White House thereafter
being for women only. Abuses were reported (fn. 75)
although the presence of two resident medical
officers after 1828 led to some improvement.
The Red House was enlarged and the White
House was rebuilt in the 1840s. Bethnal Green
asylum housed 614 people, 558 of them inmates,
in 1851. (fn. 76) It had 410 beds in 1892, (fn. 77) a new block
for men from 1896, and 203 inmates and 60 staff
in 1901. (fn. 78) The asylum closed in 1920. (fn. 79)
The epidemic of 1849 led to the opening in
1850 of Queen Adelaide's dispensary (fn. 80) with a
resident medical officer in Warner Place. (fn. 81) In
1865 its trustees, led by the Revd. E.F. Coke,
acquired a site at the corner of Pollard Row
and William Street, (fn. 82) where a dispensary was
built in 1866 in a Renaissance style, with an
elaborate tower and cupola. (fn. 83) In 1868 Coke
appealed for funds to aid the vast numbers of
sick. (fn. 84) In 1889 the dispensary dealt with 6,656
medical and surgical cases and 3,248 dental
cases. (fn. 85) It ceased to be a dispensary when it
was registered as Queen Adelaide's charity in
1961 and governed by a scheme in 1963 to
apply the income for the benefit of the sick
poor of Bethnal Green. (fn. 86) The building was a
nurses' home for Queen Elizabeth's Children's
hospital in the 1970s (fn. 87) but was derelict by the
end of the 1980s.
The City of London Chest hospital (fn. 88) originated
in a dispensary opened in 1848 on the site of Broad
Street station by a committee of mostly Quaker
businessmen. In 1849 they rented 4 a. next to
Victoria Park, including Bishop's Hall and its associated buildings, which were demolished. In 1851
Prince Albert laid the foundation stone of a three-storeyed red-brick building with stone dressings and
a central bell tower by Frederick Ordish, which
opened as a consumption hospital in 1855. (fn. 89) A
chapel was added in 1858, (fn. 90) and there were considerable rebuilding and enlargement in 1881 (fn. 91) and
further alterations in 1891, (fn. 92) 1899, (fn. 93) and 1928 when
a surgical block and X-ray department were
added. (fn. 94) The hospital had 164 beds, 1,200
in-patients and 56,000 out-patients in 1892 (fn. 95) and
103 inmates and 46 staff in 1901. (fn. 96) Renamed the
City of London Hospital for Diseases of the Heart
and Lungs by 1923, it had 177 beds in 1931, more
than half of them for the tubercular cases. (fn. 97) Bombing destroyed the chapel and one hospital wing in
1940 and in 1950 there were 135 beds and 5,727
new out-patients. (fn. 98) An out-patient extension and a
teaching centre were added in 1975, a block containing wards and laboratories in 1983, and a new
library in 1986. (fn. 99)
Two hospitals grew out of the epidemic of 1866.
The vicar of St. Philip's, whose parish included the
Nichol, appealed for help from the Mildmay Deaconesses. A fund in memory of the founder William
Pennefather was used to establish a medical mission
with a doctor and dispensary in a cottage in
Turville Street in the heart of the slums in
1874. A disused warehouse nearby opened in
1877 as Mildmay Mission hospital (fn. 1) with three
10-bedded wards, for men, women, and children respectively, staffed by a doctor, three
nurses, and five deaconesses as probationer
nurses. It was demolished in the Boundary
Street clearance scheme and in 1890 the foundation stone was laid of a hospital in Austin
Street, (fn. 2) which opened as a five-storeyed red-brick building with 50 beds in 1892. It had 35
inmates and 30 'officials' in 1901. (fn. 3) It was extended in 1926 and 1938, damaged in 1944,
and extended again in 1965, (fn. 4) bringing the total
of beds to 72. Jacob Home and Sir Graham
Rowlandson House opened for staff in 1977 and
1979 respectively. The hospital closed in 1984. (fn. 5)
Queen Elizabeth Children's hospital (originally
North Eastern hospital, renamed Queen's in
1908), owed its origins to the same epidemic. (fn. 6)
In 1867 two Quaker sisters, Mary Elizabeth and
Ellen Phillips, rented a house in Virginia Row
as a dispensary for women and children. In 1868
it was transferred to no. 125 Hackney Road,
where 12 cots were provided and treatment was
restricted to children. In 1870 the sisters purchased the freehold of no. 327 Hackney Road
and began raising funds and charging 2d. for
out-patients and 2s. 6d. a week for in-patients.
In 1892 the hospital had 63 beds, 600 in-patients,
and 15,282 out-patients. (fn. 7) A large gift by John
Horniman started a building fund in 1893 and
led to the opening of a building mainly fronting
Goldsmith's Row, then in Shoreditch, with 134
beds. Boundary changes in 1899 brought the
hospital wholly within Bethnal Green. (fn. 8) In 1901
it had 58 inmates and 26 'officials'. (fn. 9) Ear, nose,
and throat and skin departments were started
in 1910 and an isolation ward was built in 1911
on the site of nos. 331-5 Hackney Road. (fn. 10) Work
expanded to rickets and anaemia, widespread
diseases of poverty. Two annexes were built
in 1918, (fn. 11) a new operating theatre followed
in 1922, (fn. 12) and nos. 337-9 Hackney Road
were converted into a dental clinic and staff
accommodation in 1934; (fn. 13) a new out-patient
department was opened in 1938 and casualty,
pathology, and X-ray departments were opened
in 1939. Bombed in 1940, (fn. 14) the hospital was
amalgamated in 1942 with Princess Elizabeth
of York Children's hospital in Shadwell as
the Queen Elizabeth hospital for children. It
had 157 beds and an average of 7,843 new
out-patients in 1950. (fn. 15) Charles Hayward research building, by Lyons Israel Ellis, John
McCain, and J. Jarvis & Sons, a concrete and
glass tower 'slipped over' existing buildings,
opened in 1972. (fn. 16) The hospital had 133 beds
in 1993. (fn. 17)
Accommodation for the sick in the workhouse
was inadequate long before the first attempts to
acquire part of the Poor's Lands for an infirmary
in 1889. (fn. 18) The guardians in 1895 bought the site
of the Episcopal Jews' chapel and its associated
buildings, (fn. 19) where they built Bethnal Green
infirmary or hospital, three-storeyed and of red
brick with stone dressings, (fn. 20) in 1900. It consisted
of a central administrative block with three
double ward blocks to the west. It had 619
inmates and 117 officials in 1901. (fn. 21) Additions
included receiving wards in 1926, an extra floor on
the central block in 1927, (fn. 22) and an operating theatre
in 1929. The hospital, which still used the workhouse for extra room, had 650 beds in 1931. (fn. 23) It
was bombed (fn. 24) and by 1950 was a general or acute
hospital with 315 beds and 7,477 new out-patients. (fn. 25)
Between 1978 and 1985 it was reclassified as geriatric and the beds were reduced to 199. (fn. 26) It closed
in 1988 (fn. 27) and was later demolished.
Under the National Health Act of 1948 Bethnal
Green's hospitals were grouped under the Central
group management committee of the North East
Metropolitan region. (fn. 28) In 1966 the Central group
amalgamated with Stepney group to form the East
London hospital management committee. (fn. 29) Between 1970 and 1978 control passed to Tower
Hamlets health authority. (fn. 30) By 1993 the only
remaining hospitals, Queen Elizabeth Children's
and the London Chest, were classified as Special
Health Authorities, run by governors directly
responsible to the Minister of Health. (fn. 31)
An old parish mortuary, possibly in Turville
Street, (fn. 32) by 1879 was 'a standing local disgrace'.
Despite ratepayers' reluctance to spend money,
a protracted ecclesiastical suit reaffirmed the
vestry's right to provide a new mortuary in St.
Matthew's churchyard. Built by A. S. Judd of
York Street, Globe Road, of Luton grey bricks
mixed with Portland stone to plans by the
vestry's surveyor, it opened in 1880 (fn. 33) and was in
use in 1902. (fn. 34) Alterations were made to the
Turville Street mortuary in 1884. (fn. 35)
BURIAL GROUNDS.
Although Bethnal Green
never had a municipal cemetery, burial grounds
were unusually numerous. To cope with the demand on Stepney's churchyard during the plague
of 1665, a burial ground was enclosed on manorial
waste north of Mile End Road and west of Dog
Lane and the bishop licensed the parish clerk to
bury parishioners there. (fn. 36) In 1670 it was described
as west of the sewer (fn. 37) depicted in 1703 as running
through the middle of Simkins Gardens, (fn. 38) which
had replaced it after 1673. (fn. 39) A Jewish burial
ground existed from 1761 to 1858 in North Street,
not far from the plague burial ground. (fn. 40)
St. Matthew's churchyard (2 a.) was consecrated as a burial ground in 1746 (fn. 41) but by 1819
was inadequate. The vestry stipulated that burial
vaults should be included under the new National
school built on part of the churchyard and finished
by 1820, when 17 vaults could each hold 20
bodies. (fn. 42) In 1826 the vestry stopped the bringing
of 'boxes or cases of bones' from St. Katharine's and
other London churches to St. Matthew's churchyard, (fn. 43) where c. 50,000 had been buried by 1848. (fn. 44)
In the cholera epidemic of 1849 the vaults contained 96 coffins piled up like 'bales of goods' and
the common graves of cholera victims were a cause
of sickness. (fn. 45) Burials in St. Matthew's churchyard
and vaults were discontinued from 1853 (fn. 46) and in the
vaults under St. John's from 1856. (fn. 47) The churches
of St. Peter, St. Bartholomew, and St. James the
Less had burial grounds of c. 1 a. or less which were
restricted from 1853 and closed in 1855. (fn. 48)
The Congregational Gibraltar (1792) and the
Baptist Providence (1835) chapels, both in the
north-western part of Bethnal Green, had burial
grounds which were in use in 1848 (fn. 49) but the
first (c. ¾ a.) was closed in 1855. (fn. 50)
As a private speculation c. 4 a. of unconsecrated
ground in Peel Grove, called Cambridge Heath
or North East London cemetery or Kildy's
ground after the owner or undertaker, opened
c. 1840 (fn. 51) with a resident superintendent. (fn. 52) It
rapidly became overcrowded, especially in the
cholera epidemic, and was used by the parish
authorities. Some 20,000 corpses, buried six
deep, were interred before its closure in 1855.
A private company opened Victoria Park cemetery in 1845 on 11½ a. of the Butler estate near the
Regent's canal. (fn. 53) In 1846 a superintendent's house
and a small mortuary chapel by Arthur Ashpitel
were built by its entrance at the western end. (fn. 54)
By 1856 burials were at the rate of 130 every
Sunday and there were complaints about the cemetery, which was never consecrated. (fn. 55) After closure
in 1876 the neglected ground was used by ruffians
for gambling. (fn. 56) The Disused Burial Grounds Act,
1884, (fn. 57) prevented building on the site, which in
1885 became a recreation ground.
PARKS AND OTHER OPEN SPACES.
Bethnal Green's largest open space was the
217-a. Victoria Park, started in 1842 and opened
in 1845, which lay mostly in Hackney. (fn. 58)
The Poor's Lands in the centre of the green,
acquired in 1678 chiefly to prevent building,
for 200 years were leased as farmland and not
accessible to the public. (fn. 59) When Bethnal Green
Museum (fn. 60) was built on the northern section in
1868, the 2½ a. surrounding it were conveyed to
the Science and Art Department for a public
garden. Responsibility passed to the M.B.W.
under the London Parks and Works Act,
1887. (fn. 61) In 1888 the Metropolitan Public Gardens
Association proposed that the Museum garden
be extended to the 6½ a. of Poor's Land south
of Green Street, at the same time as the land was
requested for public buildings. Pressed by the
association, the Commons Preservation Society,
and 'passionate enthusiasm among the poor', (fn. 62)
the trustees in 1891 conveyed the whole 6½ a. to
the L.C.C., which laid it out with shrubberies
and a gymnasium as Bethnal Green Gardens.
Several closed burial grounds became public
gardens. In 1883 the vestry considered a request
by the rector to lay out St. Matthew's churchyard as an open space. Despite the bad state
of St. Bartholomew's churchyard there were
objections to what was seen as an attempted
revival of the church rate and no further action
was taken by the local authorities. (fn. 63) In 1884 the
Metropolitan Public Gardens Association
agreed to maintain St. Bartholomew's churchyard as a garden, (fn. 64) for which responsibility had
passed by 1896 to the L.C.C. The Kyrle Society
laid out gardens in St. Peter's churchyard which
were maintained by the vicar. (fn. 65) In 1897 the
rector agreed that the Metropolitan Public
Gardens Association should lay out St. Matthew's
churchyard, transferring the freehold to the
vestry and in 1903 to the L.C.C. (fn. 66)
The association's most important acquisition in
Bethnal Green was Victoria Park cemetery, whose
freehold the Revd. Y. B. M. Butler agreed to hand
over in 1891. It was conveyed to the L.C.C. and
in 1894 reconveyed to the association which had
carried out the conversion. (fn. 67) The tombstones were
set against the wall and the converted cemetery
opened in 1894 as Meath Gardens, named after the
association's chairman. (fn. 68)
The L.C.C. came to be responsible for most
of Bethnal Green's open space: (fn. 69) 77 a. of Victoria
Park, 9½ a. of Meath gardens, 9 a. of Bethnal
Green and Museum gardens, St. Bartholomew's
churchyard (0.7 a.), St. Matthew's churchyard
(1.8 a.), and Boundary Street gardens (0.8 a.),
part of the Boundary Street scheme, opened in
1899. The M.B. opened gardens, all of less than
½ a., in Ion Square in 1895, at the Triangle,
Columbia Road, in 1913, in Craft School
memorial gardens in Globe Road in 1926, and
in Pelter Street playground in 1928. Under the
Transfer of Powers (London) Order, 1933,
Boundary Street gardens and the two churchyards were transferred to the M.B.
In 1954 Bethnal Green had just over 100 a. with
public access, which, for a reduced population,
were still considered 60 a. too little. (fn. 70) The
building of high-rise flats cleared more land, one
of the largest areas being Weavers' Fields south
of Bethnal Green Road, which was extended
by the G.L.C. in 1965, (fn. 71) and others including
Shacklewell Street open space, from 1973. (fn. 72)
Tower Hamlets refused, on financial grounds,
to accept the G.L.C.'s parks in 1969. (fn. 73) By the
late 1970s there was much open space, mostly
around housing estates and along the canal,
although improvement was needed, especially
in the planting of trees. (fn. 74) In 1985 the area
west of Grove Road was cleared as part of a
scheme for a canalside park from Victoria Park
to Limehouse. (fn. 75)
PUBLIC ORDER.
Policing, before the creation of
the metropolitan police in 1829, was the responsibility of an elected constable, assisted by
head boroughs. (fn. 76) In 1676 Bethnal Green hamlet was
ordered to reimburse its constable, who had paid
for a 'very needful' stocks and whipping post. (fn. 77)
Night watchmen by 1652 could shelter in a
10-ft. square watchhouse, 'lately built' at the
inhabitants' expense on the waste near St.
George's chapel. (fn. 78) In 1681 a watch of 14 men
was organized (fn. 79) and in 1685 money from the
Poor's Lands was spent on 'setting up the
monument and four dials upon the watchhouse'. (fn. 80) The principal watchhouse was
centrally situated, at the crossroads of Cambridge Road with Bethnal Green Road and
Green Street. A second watchhouse stood at
the junction of Bethnal Green Road and Brick
Lane by 1694. (fn. 81) By 1746 the western watchhouse had apparently disappeared and the
central one had been moved to just north of the
madhouse (Kirby's Castle). (fn. 82) In 1748 the vestry
decided to rebuild, using the fines paid by those
excused from office. (fn. 83) The watchhouse was of
brick in 1792 (fn. 84) and was rebuilt on the Poor's
Lands (probably the same site) in 1797. (fn. 85)
A second police authority consisted of the
trustees set up by the Act of 1751, (fn. 86) which was
designed, inter alia, to regulate the nightly
watch and bedels. The trustees could direct the
constable, who was to attend nightly with the
headboroughs, to 'prevent mischiefs', detain
wrongdoers in the watchhouse, and observe the
watchmen; they could also levy rates and decide
on the number of watchmen. The watch had
apparently lapsed by 1780 when, following 'outrages' (presumably the Gordon riots), the vestry
considered employing eight men to patrol at
night. (fn. 87) In 1788, however, there were few watchmen and those were said to be always asleep. (fn. 88)
In 1754 the trustees and vestry jointly decided
to build a watchhouse in the churchyard to curb
body-snatching. (fn. 89) In 1792 a watchbox was set up
in the churchyard, a watchman appointed at
10s.6d. a week, and a reward offered for the
apprehension of grave robbers. (fn. 90) A patrol was
appointed for the churchyard in 1804 (fn. 91) and collusion with body snatchers was alleged against the
gravedigger in 1821 (fn. 92) and the sexton, gravedigger,
and day watchman in 1826, when two 'old and
leading offenders' were imprisoned. (fn. 93) In 1831 two
local men murdered an Italian boy in the Nova
Scotia area to sell his body for dissection. (fn. 94)
In 1816 the rector complained of the disorders
connived at by Joseph Merceron and of the state
of the police. (fn. 95) The vestry clerk James May, who
was also clerk to the trustees, persuaded them to
double the number of headboroughs to 28 in an
apparently futile attempt to stop bull-running
and dog fighting. (fn. 96) With the same object, 100
'sober householders' were sworn in as special
constables in 1819. (fn. 97) In 1826 the activities of the
ruffians denominated Bullock Hunters compelled
the vestry to ask the Home Secretary for help. (fn. 98)
Gangs of 500-600 met nightly in a brickfield in
Spicer Street to cook food stolen from shops
which had not put up their shutters early
enough; they ambushed animals going to Smithfield and Barnet markets and drove them to the
marshes, robbing anyone whom they met. Sir
Robert Peel accordingly stationed 40 men
throughout the parish and sent a horse patrol,
whose arrests deterred the gang. (fn. 99) By 1828 the
watch trust employed an elected constable and
28 headboroughs, 38 volunteer special constables
and, as paid officers, a combined night beadle and
inspector of watchmen, four horsemen, 49
watchmen, and 13 'sparemen'. (fn. 1) They, together
with the watch trust, were replaced in 1829 by
the metropolitan police. (fn. 2) Enthusiasm for Peel in
1826, when the Home Office had financed the
police operation, contrasted with opposition in
1830, when a police rate of 4d. in the £ had been
set to raise £1,300. (fn. 3) In 1834 the police were said
to give little help to the overseers threatened
by aggressive claimants. (fn. 4)
A police station for H division stood on the
south side of Bethnal Green Road, almost
opposite Turville Street, by 1870. (fn. 5) It was on
land acquired by the M.B.W. at the western
end of Bethnal Green Road in 1872 and was
replaced by a station at the eastern end of the
road, at the junction with Ainsley Street, by 1879. (fn. 6)
In 1902 it was the headquarters of J division. (fn. 7)
A new station at the rear of the fire centre
behind Victoria Park Square was planned in
1986 (fn. 8) but by 1988 the site had been rescheduled
for housing. (fn. 9) In response to racial violence a
second police station opened in 1976 in Brick
Lane, to which 14 extra officers were allotted in
1987. (fn. 10)
FIRE ENGINES.
In 1749 the beadle was
granted £2 a year to look after a fire engine. (fn. 11) A
separate engineer was elected to the office by
1760. (fn. 12) The watchhouse planned for the churchyard in 1754 was to have an adjoining engine
house. (fn. 13) In 1775 the parish provided fire ladders
which could be borrowed at a charge depending
on their size. (fn. 14) In 1820 more than one engine
was repaired (fn. 15) but in 1828 the duties of engineer
were combined with those of night beadle and
inspector of watchmen. (fn. 16) By the 1860s there was
one person specially appointed to look after the
engines, of which there were two, both 'in an
efficient state'. (fn. 17)
The parish maintained its engine house in
Bethnal Green Road, west of Squirries Street,
until 1867 when it became a fire brigade station
under the M.B.W. (fn. 18) By 1886 the building was
inadequate and road widening made available a
site at the north-west corner of Green Street and
Globe Road, where in 1889 a station opened with
accommodation on the eastern side of Globe
Road for an officer and six men and, on the
western side of Chester Place, for two horses. (fn. 19) The
neighbouring no. 4 Chester Place was acquired in
1898 and the station was enlarged in 1907; (fn. 20) a
drill tower was erected in 1912. (fn. 21) Plans to rebuild (fn. 22) were delayed by the Second World War
but revived in 1961 (fn. 23) and a new station was built
farther west, on the corner of Roman Road
(Green Street) and Victoria Park Square, in 1966-7. (fn. 24)
The old station survives as a Buddhist centre. (fn. 25)
GAS, ELECTRICITY, AND LIGHTING.
The Acts of 1751, 1813, and 1843 included
provision for lighting. The first empowered the
trustees to decide on the lamps. (fn. 26) There was at
least one 'lighter of lamps' by 1768 (fn. 27) but the
existence of only a few lamps, serving for two or
three hours in the winter, was cited in 1788 as a
symptom of poor parish government. (fn. 28) Gas was
presumably available by 1828, when the vestry
discussed lighting St. John's church. (fn. 29) The
building was to be heated with it in 1831, (fn. 30) by
which time the parish was 'lighted with gas'. (fn. 31)
The Act of 1843 allowed the imposition of a rate
and empowered new commissioners to light the
streets, 'saving the rights of the Independent
Gas Light & Coke Co.' (fn. 32) The main supplier,
however, was the Imperial Gas Co. to which
£460 was paid in the first year, compared with
£63 to the 'Incorporated Gas Co.'. (fn. 33) The parish
had 648 public lamps and a gas inspection by
1854. (fn. 34) In 1855 responsibility for lighting passed
to the vestry. The Imperial Gas Co. soon built
gasholders on part of the Pritchard estate (fn. 35) and
c. 1870 it added another gasholder, designed by
its engineer, Joseph Clark, in a frame of 24 cast
iron columns. (fn. 36) Between 1856 and 1872 150
street lamps were added and in 1871 the parish
paid £3,475 to the gas companies for lighting. (fn. 37)
The Imperial Gas Co. was merged in 1887 into
the Gas Light & Coke Co., which in 1905-6
supplied all Bethnal Green except a small
western part which was supplied by the Commercial Co. (fn. 38) By the Gas Act, 1948, the
companies were superseded by the Gas Council's North Thames Board. The Gas Act, 1972,
replaced the Gas Council with the British Gas
Corporation, which was privatized in 1986 as
British Gas Plc and included Bethnal Green as
its North Thames district. (fn. 39) North Sea gas had
made the gasholders next to the Regents Union
canal redundant by c. 1978 (fn. 40) but they remained
in 1993.
The vestry undertook to supply electricity
under an Act of 1899 (fn. 41) but Bethnal Green was
the only M.B. in north-east London still without
it in 1903. (fn. 42) The M.B. acquired a site by 1905, (fn. 43)
began to prepare a scheme in 1911, (fn. 44) laid
cables in 1914, (fn. 45) and started supplies in 1916. (fn. 46)
Applications to build substations were made for
New Tyssen Street in 1915, (fn. 47) for Digby Street
in 1916, (fn. 48) for St. Andrew's Street in 1927, (fn. 49) and
for Vivian Road in 1936. (fn. 50) In 1937 the L.C.C.
applied to build Electrical Transformer House
in Waterloo Road. (fn. 51) In 1947 responsibility
passed to London Electricity Board. (fn. 52) By the
Electricity Act, 1989, the board was replaced by
London Electricity Plc, which included Bethnal
Green in its North Thames area. (fn. 53)
PUBLIC LIBRARIES.
A library in the church
was to be locked by the vestry clerk in 1812, after
books had been taken out of it 'improperly', (fn. 54)
and was included in repairs in 1820. (fn. 55) After a
failure to secure the adoption of the Public
Libraries Act in 1875, Bethnal Green Free library
was founded by the Christian Community in
1876. Initially in cramped rooms in London
Street, it relied entirely on voluntary support,
which included a gift from the Prince of Wales.
In 1881 the library moved to the community's
memorial hall in London Street and by 1882 it
had been given c. 7,000 volumes. The library,
an unsuccessful contender for a site on the Poor's
Lands in 1888, survived until 1934. (fn. 56)
The borough adopted the Public Libraries
Acts in 1912 and, after a delay caused by the
war, opened a temporary library at nos. 1 and 3
Old Ford Road, on the corner with Cambridge
Road, in 1919, the last of the libraries assisted
by Andrew Carnegie. (fn. 57) In 1922 the first permanent public library opened in the newest part
of the vacated Bethnal House asylum (fn. 58) with a
red-brick neo-classical extension by the borough
surveyor, A. E. Darby. Branch libraries opened
in 1935 in the disused coroner's court in Church
(later St. Matthew's) Row, and in 1937 in a
former shop at the corner of Roman and Vivian
roads. The latter, bombed in 1940 and closed in
1942, was rebuilt on the same site, no. 369
Roman Road, in 1949. (fn. 59) A public library in
Ravenscroft Street on Dorset estate opened in
1959. (fn. 60) and a music library was established in
Mayfield House, the council estate opened in
Cambridge Heath Road in 1964. (fn. 61) By 1990
the libraries were divided among the neighbourhoods: Bethnal Green library, still in its
original buildings, in Globe Town, Roman
Road in Bow, and Dorset in Bethnal Green. (fn. 62)
PUBLIC BATHS.
The vestry adopted the
Baths Act in 1895 (fn. 63) and in 1898 built baths and
washhouses in Cheshire Street. (fn. 64) In 1923 the
M.B. purchased the site of Colman's starch
factory, nos. 5-13, at the western end of Old
Ford Road, where in 1929 the duke and
duchess of York opened York Hall, public
baths and a hall in a neo-Georgian red-brick
building with stone dressings by A.E. Darby;
it contained two swimming pools, Turkish,
vapour, and electric baths, and washhouses. (fn. 65)
The first-class swimming bath was converted
into an assembly hall c. 1950 (fn. 66) and Kenneth
Wakeford, Jerram & Harris built a large new
pool in 1965-7, the washhouses becoming a
bar and kitchen and the remaining swimming
pool a public hall. (fn. 67) Cheshire Street baths were
derelict by 1988.