Morning Advertiser (London)
8 September 1888
OVERCROWDING IN THE EAST END
Dr. Macdonald held an inquest yesterday afternoon at the "Paul's Head," Spitalfields, on the body of Jacob Meckleburg, aged four months, the son of a costermonger, living at 2 Butler street, Spitalfields. From the evidence of the mother the deceased was found dead in bed. It was stated that the parents and their seven children lived together in one room about 12ft. square, for which they paid 4s 6d a week rent. Dr. Hume, who was called in after death, depose that the child had been suffocated, most probably by overlying. The jury returned a verdict of "Accidental death," and added a rider that the sanitary authorities were most lax in their duties to allow a family of nine people to live and sleep in so small a room, and that the overcrowding which prevails in the East end ought to be inquired into, and something done to alleviate it. The coroner said he was of the same opinion himself, and would put the matter before the proper authorities.
