when the general board of heath was established following the 1848 public health act, alfred dickens became one of the group of civil engineers required by the board to hold enquiries and produce reports investigating the petitions from individual local authorities (local boards) seeking town improvements and loans to fund them. one such in 1855, was alfred dickens's report which highlighted the terrible overcrowding suffered by many people in the canning town area of london. among the other engineers at the general board was henry austin, who had married letitia dickens, sister to alfred and charles dickens, in 1837. the squalid conditions charles dickens described would have been influenced by these close family ties.