This seal was the badge
of Croydon's Local Board of Health.
It was the forerunner
of the local council.

In the 1840s, Croydon
was a very unhealthy place to live.
Diseases killed hundreds
of local people every year.

The Board aimed to improve
local people's quality of life.

This satirical poem
is read by an actor.

"I wandered lonely as a cloud
that floats on high o'er vales and hills,
and all at once I saw a crowd,
a host of brownish cesspool spills.

Beside the stream,
beneath the trees,
festering and stenching
in the breeze."

When the Public Health Act
was passed in 1848
Croydon was one of the first towns
to set up its own Board of Health.

The Board improved the water supply
by building a pumping station,
and laying pipes.
It also built sewers.

Its other responsibilities included
collecting rates,
town planning, street lighting,
law and order and the fire service.

By the 1890s Croydon was said to be
"the healthiest among the large towns
in the kingdom".

To find out more about the
Croydon Board of Health you
can visit the Research Room.

The Research Room is on the
lower ground floor of the Clocktower,
It is open Tuesday-Saturday
10:30am-5pm.