Concern over the outbreak of Cholera highlighted this scene at night in the coal yard of The King's Arms Yard in Drury Lane. Here around 17 large families live in small apartments above sheds for animals. Sometimes many cartloads of refuse lie in the yard and the uneven pavement is filled with with stagnant water. Children play in this squalid and miserable place which is a stone's throw away from where the Great Plague broke out in 1665. Date: 22 October 1853