Together we will beat this: A look at the fight against infectious disease in Hull

Whilst working from home, I have been researching and writing a new source guide exploring archives held at Hull History Centre about public baths, washhouses, and swimming pools.  It led me to write this blog about some of the public health measures put in place to help to stop the spread of disease during the last two centuries. Just a year ago we probably thought that developments in public health, sanitation, vaccination, and medicine had assigned epidemics on the scale we are witnessing today to the history books. We have clearly still got lessons to learn now and as we move towards, what might be, a quite different future.

Historically legislation was put in place to improve conditions and manage public health in direct response to outbreaks of infectious disease; for example, the typhus and cholera epidemics of 1847 meant an urgent demand for clean bodies and clothes. The Public Baths and Wash-houses Acts of 1846 & 1847 were passed giving local authorities the power to establish facilities. Construction costs were to come out of the Poor Rate and paid back over time. As well as providing large scale systems for water and sewage removal, road paving and other urban improvements, Hull Corporation were keen to demonstrate a sense of civic consciousness and pride by building visible signs of its progressiveness. Very intricate architectural designs, kept at the Hull History Centre, of both East Hull and Beverley Road baths, show us the lengths leaders would go to ensure that their buildings would be both functional and ornamental.

In the mid-1800s a major challenge that Hull faced in the fight against infectious disease was its popularity as a trading port. Ships regularly came into Hull from Hamburg in the 1840s and were partly blamed for easing the spread of cholera in Britain, with Hamburg once a cholera hotspot. Also, the second wave of Russian flu is said to have arrived by sea into Hull in Feb 1891 claiming as many as 57,980 victims from all levels of society in England & Wales. The Russian flu was the first pandemic to strike the country in nearly 40 years. During the intervening years, Britain had gone from a largely rural nation to a predominantly urban one. By the 1881 census 67.8 per cent of the population of England and Wales lived in towns and cities, working in cramped and inadequately ventilated buildings where there was no escape from the coughing and spluttering of their colleagues.

Hull also soon became celebrated as the best route in Europe for passengers looking for a new life in the Americas, Australasia, and South Africa, with its newly built docks and increased railway connections. Rather than sailing directly to their desired location or through more expensive ports like London, Hull was a much cheaper option. The demand for transmigration through Hull was so great, and emigrants had such a poor reputation for personal hygiene standards, that immediate relevant legislation was required. Byelaws and acts of parliament were soon passed to improve general sanitary conditions and to counter the detrimental effects on inhabitants as well as those who were just visiting or passing through. The Kingston upon Hull Urban Sanitary Authority was created in 1851. Rail companies established waiting rooms and special facilities for the many thousands of emigrants who passed through the port. The North Eastern Railway Company built an emigrant waiting room on Anlaby Road near Paragon Station in 1871 which was forced to double in size by 1881. It had facilities for the emigrants to meet the ticket agents, wash, use the toilet and take shelter. The intention was to quarantine them until they were ready for passage to their destination. 

The connection between personal cleanliness and disease continued to evolve nationally, particularly after the formation of germ theory in the 1880s, when knowledge increased about how various diseases could be transmitted. Schools began teaching health education. This, and improved literacy rates generally, meant that many people could read government pamphlets about personal hygiene, fresh air, clean clothing, good diet, and exercise-all thought to render the body less susceptible to disease. More stringent building regulations also improved the quality of working-class housing. Hull Corporation, between 1890 and 1910, condemned and demolished 779 houses, mostly those in narrow passages and alleys. They also introduced a programme for the systematic conversion of privies to water closets in 1912. Hull City Archives holds records relating to privy conversions and compulsory purchases made by the corporation. 

Public health initiatives continued to increase both locally and nationally. Hull appointed its first Medical Officer of Health in the 1870s. Such officers played a key role in local authorities all over the country, tackling and advising on environmental health and infectious disease. An important function of the Medical Officer of Health was the publication of annual reports. Those for Hull cover 1879-1989 and include birth and death statistics as well as information relating to population and housing. The information that the reports contain evolved over time, as did the measures put in place to improve people’s health and wellbeing.

A year ago, few people had heard of phrases containing ‘Social Distancing’ and ‘Isolation’ in the context that we have now become accustomed to hearing them. Public health has rapidly moved to the top of government agendas throughout the world. With a huge growth in population, increased and relatively cheap travel opportunities in the modern world it is inevitable that infectious diseases can travel further and at greater speed. Throughout history nothing has killed more human beings. We have come a long way; life expectancy at the dawn of the 19th century was just 29 years globally. However, the current pandemic has taught us that there is still a long road ahead of us as we look to the future. Just like things changed and evolved for our ancestors, current and subsequent public health measures might mean that many facets of our lives, that we once took for granted, may start to look, and feel quite different.

Elspeth Bower, Librarian/Archivist (Hull City Archives)