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and the rate of growth, it may be added, showing, in most cases, a
tendency to become smaller and smaller; and lastly, that outside
Registration London there was a wide belt of suburban districts
conveniently designated the Outer Registration Ring, in which the
population was increasing with extraordinary rapidity."
"For the most part," adds the Registrar General, "these
phenomena are repeated in the present enumeration. With one
exception [St. George-in-the-East] all the Central Districts that had
shown decreases in the three previous inter-censal periods also
showed a decrease in 1891-1901."

Since 1861 the "Clerkenwell" divisions have declined in houses
1,092, and in population 1,924.*
The "St. Luke" divisions have declined in houses 3,325, and in
population 21,697.
The sub-districts of St. Sepulchre, Glasshouse Yard, and other
transferred Holborn properties have declined about 360 in houses,
and 3,805 in population, that is to say, more than half in both
respects.
These figures call for but little comment, yet the actual changes
here recorded have had far reaching effects. The steady decrease
has no doubt been due to the extension and substitution of commercial
for residential purposes. In the Amwell sub-districts and
central part of the "Clerkenwell" portion of the Borough there has
been comparatively little change in the number of inhabitants as
*In 1801 the population of Clerkenwell was 23,396; in 1821 it was 39,105;
and in 1840, 56,766.