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Welcome to - The Clark Report (1850)
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In the industrial towns and cities of Victorian Britain a rapidly increasing population were forced to live in overcrowded conditions with little or no amenities. The result of this was that diseases like Typhus, Smallpox and Cholera become endemic and death rates were high.

The Public Health Act of 1848 was passed in an attempt to remedy this situation. One element of the act was to give local authorities powers to enforce basic public health provisions in matters such as drainage, water supply and street cleansing. Before the powers could be adopted local ratepayers had to petition the General Board of Health to send an inspector. The inspector would then report on the conditions he found in the locality and if he found it necessary, authorise the Town Council to hold the powers outlined in the act, or where there was no Town Council, set up a Local Board of Health.

In Newport the General Board of Health was petitioned by the local ratepayers and the public enquiry and inspection was undertaken by George Thomas Clark in August 1849. Clark's report provides an invaluable insight into the life of the people of Newport at a time when the city was expanding at a rapid rate to feed the Industrial Revolution's insatiable demand for manpower.

Amongst the problems he highlights are chronic overcrowding, poor or no sanitation, full and even overfilling graveyards and limited water supply. Amongst the worst affected areas were the infamous slums of Friar's Field's and Fothergill Street which are now occupied by John Frost Square, the Kingsway Centre and the Central Library. In one lodging house in Fothergill Street, Clark reports that he found in one room five beds with six men in each bed and that in the same room women and children slept in small cupboards. Many of those who endured these conditions were Irish labourers who had fled the Great Famine in their homeland.