London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Battersea 1935
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Battersea Borough]
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109
It might also be pointed out that it has been the practice of the
Council to re-house on their own estates families from badly overcrowded
or otherwise unsuitable houses, and this, to a certain
extent at least, accounts for a larger percentage of overcrowding
on the Council's estates as compared with the Borough as a whole.
The distribution of overcrowding on the Council's estates is as follows :—
| Latchmere Estate | 34 |
| Town Hall Estate | 4 |
| Savona Street | 3 |
| Chatham House | 4 |
| Latchmere House | 5 |
| Plough Road Improvement Scheme and Extension | 24 |
| St. John's Estate | 34 |
| Stewarts Lane | 6 |
| — 114 |
There are in the Borough 49 occupied caravan dwellings which
have been included in the return. Of these 41 are overcrowded.
Under section 21 of the Act, it is incumbent upon the London
County Council to submit a return to the Minister of Health showing
the number of houses required to abate the overcrowding existing
in the Metropolitan Boroughs, and in order that the calculation for
each borough should be made on a uniform basis the London County
Council issued suggestions, which had been agreed to by the
Metropolitan Boroughs Standing Joint Committee, for guidance in
computing the number of houses required.
After the necessary adjustments had been made for vacant dwellings, the dwellings vacated by the abatement of overcrowding, the cases of overcrowding in clearance areas, and the standard to which the Council should conform in rehousing these cases it was estimated that the following number of dwellings were required to abate the overcrowding in the borough :—.
| 3-roomed dwellings | 221 |
| 4 „ „ | 148 |
| 5 „ „ | 174 |
| 6 „ „ | 38 |
| 7 „ „ | 28 |
| 8 „ „ | 7 |
| 9 „ „ | 2 |
| Total | 618 |
It should be borne in mind that this estimate was arrived at
in a theoretical manner. In practice it will probably be found that
the majority of the cases of overcrowding occur amongst that portion
of the population which, for economic reasons, will be unable