WEST DERBY HUNDRED 



LIVERPOOL 



neglect of civic duties. In regard to the regulation 

 of buildings the new regime was especially vigorous. 

 The council obtained powers by an Act of 1839'" 

 to appoint building surveyors who should be required 

 to certify before any new building was permitted to 

 be occupied that it fulfilled the numerous require- 

 ments laid down in the Act. These regulations were 

 made still more exacting by the important Act of 

 1 842,™' which forbade the erection of inadequately 

 lighted courts ; the same Act also empowered the 

 magistrates to order the cleansing at the owner's ex- 

 pense of any ' filthy or unwholesome ' house. The 

 most important clause of this epoch-making Act was 

 that which decreed the appointment of a Health 

 Committee to carry out its terms. Another Act of the 

 same year,"" while providing for the widening of 

 certain main streets, provided (section 107) that on 

 the presentment of the grand jury or the complaint 

 of four or more householders the council might de- 

 molish a ruinous house. Meanwhile the Commis- 

 sioners for Paving and Sewerage had continued to 

 perform their duties independently, being expressly 

 safeguarded from any interference by the growing 

 activity of the council ;"" but in 1842 it was pro- 

 vided that half of them should be elected by the 

 council.'" Their authority extended only over 

 the old township, and in the same year a separate 

 commission was created for Toxteth Park."' 



The new Health Committee found its work ham- 

 pered by the existence of these independent and 

 unrelated authorities. Moreover, in 1843 a very 

 powerful pamphlet '" published by Dr. Duncan, then a 

 lecturer in the Royal Infirmary School of Medicine, 

 awoke the town to a new sense of the horrors of its 

 slums . He showed that nearly half of the working- 

 class population lived in cellar-dwellings ; that most of 

 the poorer streets were quite unprovided with sewers ; 

 that the water supply was such as to render impossible 

 even ordinary personal cleanliness ; in short, that the 

 condition of the poorer quarters of the town was 

 such as not only to degrade their inhabitants, but 

 also to form a grave menace to other residents. This 

 powerful statement came at a moment when the cor- 

 poration was already awakening to the difficulty of 

 the problem, and the ineffectiveness of its weapons 

 for coping with it. The immediate result was that a 

 new Act was obtained in 1846,"* which was of the 

 most far-reaching importance. It provided for the 

 first time for the appointment of a Medical Officer of 

 Health — an office to which, with singular appropriate- 

 ness, Duncan was the first to be appointed. It 

 transferred the powers and properties of the Liverpool 

 and Toxteth Paving and Sewerage Boards to the 

 Health Committee of the Town Council, on which 

 it imposed the obligation to pave and sewer every 

 street and house."^ It also imposed upon the council 

 a totally new obligation, namely that of laying down 

 pipes and supplying water throughout the borough ; 

 for which purpose the Green Lane Waterworks were 

 transferred to the corporation. 



Under Duncan's guidance the council now began 

 a systematic campaign against cellar-dwellings ; in 

 1 847 over 5,000 such dwellings were declared unfit 

 for human habitation, and absolutely closed, while 

 over 10,000 more were measured, registered, and in 

 some cases cleansed at the owners' expense."^ But the 

 powers possessed by the council for carrying out such 

 reforms were as yet slight. By the Sanitary Amend- 

 ment Act of 1864"' these powers were very largely 

 increased ; so much so that under the terms of this 

 Act the facilities for the demolition of insanitary 

 property are in some respects more useful than any 

 conferred by the later national Acts for this purpose. 



Even more important than the demolition of in- 

 sanitary property was the provision of an adequate 

 water supply. The supply of water had hitherto been 

 in the hands of two companies — the Company of 

 Proprietors, and the Liverpool and Harrington Com- 

 pany, founded respectively in 1799 and 1802 ; both 

 drew their supply from wells, some of which are still 

 in use. These were now taken over ; '" but in 

 addition the corporation took powers to construct 

 a series of reservoirs on the Rivington moors, north 

 of Bolton."' The scheme produced much discus- 

 sion, being one of the first of its kind, and several 

 additional Acts "° were passed before it had been 

 finally settled. The Rivington Waterworks were not 

 completed till 1857; their completion for the first 

 time rendered possible a continuous supply of water 

 throughout the city. As population grew, it in turn 

 became inadequate ; and in 1879 the Vyrnwy scheme 

 was entered upon. This involved the acquisition of 

 the valley of the River Vyrnwy in Merionethshire, 

 with its drainage area of 22,742 acres ; the construc- 

 tion across the mouth of the valley of a masonry dam 

 1,172 ft. long, 161 ft. high, and 127 ft. thick, thus 

 creating a lake 4J miles long, capable of yielding a 

 supply of forty million gallons of water per diem ; 

 and the construction of an aqueduct 68 miles long, 

 including tunnels of 4J miles, one of which passes 

 under the Manchester Ship Canal and the Mersey. 

 The supply was first brought to Liverpool in 1 891, 

 after eleven years' work. The value to the com- 

 munity of this magnificent achievement cannot be 

 exaggerated."' 



Meanwhile the town had not been altogether neg- 

 lectful of the amenities. St. George's Hall,'^* de- 

 signed to serve the double purpose of a public hall 

 and assize courts, had been projected by private citi- 

 zens in 1835, ^^^ w*^ begun in 1838, and completed 

 by the corporation in 1854 at a cost of ^^2 3 8,000. 

 The design was by a young architect, H. L. Elmes, 

 who died before his work was completed, and much 

 of the interior was carried out by R. P. Cockerell. 

 The design was much criticized, but it is now agreed 

 that the building is one of the noblest modern classic 

 buildings in the world. It is enriched by a fine pedi- 

 ment by Alfred Stevens at the south end and by a 

 series of external bas-relief panels ; it contains one of 

 the best organs in England, long played by W. T. Best ; 



"•" 2 & 3 Vict. cap. 92. 

 7"8 5 Vict. cap. 44. 

 719 5 & 6 Vict. cap. 106. 

 '1° I Vict. cap. 98 ; 2 & 3 Vict. cap. 92. 

 ^^ 5 Vict. cap. 26. 

 "' 5 & 6 Vict. cap. 105. 

 ™ Read before the Lit. and Phil. Soc. 

 in 1843. 



""* 9 & 10 Vict. cap. 127. 



?^* An excellent account of the sani- 



tary administration of the city it given in 

 Hdbk, of Congress of Roy. Inst, of Pub. 

 Health, 1903. 



7" Gore's Annals, 1847. 



W 27 & 28 Vict. cap. 73. 



7^8 Under powers conferred by 39 Geo. 

 Ill, cap. 36 ; 9 Vict. cap. 35 ; and 10 & 

 II Vict. cap. 261. 



7" 10 & II Vict. cap. 261. 



730 13 & 14 Vict. cap. So; 15 Vict. 



39 



cap. 47 ; i8 Vict. cap. 66 ; 19 Vict. 

 cap. 5. 



721 On the history of the water supply 

 in general, Hist, and Descr. Account of the 

 Lm. pf^ater Supply (Water Engineer's 

 Rep, 1899); article in Hdhk. of Congress of 

 Roy. Inst, of Pub. Health, 1 903. 



722 R. P. Jones, 'H. L. Elmes,' Arcliit. 

 Rev. 1904 ; H. L. Elmes, Corresp. rela- 

 tive to St, George*s Hall, &c. 



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