Public health, London's levels and the politics of taxation, 1840-1860

Recent work on the inspiration for sanitary reform remains divided between interpretations stressing the political and ideological roots of reform and those emphasising its financial prerequisites. This paper draws these two lines of argument together through a study of a precedent-setting legal case on drainage financing in Whitechapel. The case illustrates the centrality of financing to projects of reform but also highlights the political nature of financing decisions. Whitechapel's decision about paying for sewers raised issues of political principle that connect it to contemporary debates over Poor Law financing and the provision in general of local government services in London. An examination of the court case surrounding the project under consideration reveals the complex dynamics of sanitary reform in Whitechapel. The case reaffirms the importance of local political commitments in the context of permissive public health legislation and illustrates the largely neglected role that the judiciary at all levels played in resisting, reflecting and shaping parochial political philosophy.