View report page

18
SANITARY CIRCUMSTANCES
The Borough of Deptford is roughly rectangular in shape, its greatest
length being approximately 2½ miles and the width 1½ miles. It is bordered,
roughly, on the north by Bermondsey, on the south by Lewisham and on
the west and east by Camberwell and Greenwich respectively. It has a
frontage on to the River Thames of about half a mile.
The area of the Borough is 1,564 acres of which the railways and canals
occupy 242 acres. The principal open spaces are Deptford Park, which
covers 22 acres and Telegraph Hill Recreation Ground covering 45½ acres.
Other open spaces occupy a total of approximately 16 acres.
The Borough is divided into two nearly equal parts by New Cross
Road and Queen's Road. The portion to the north is flat and contains the
major proportion of the 2,694 industrial, commercial and business
premises. The portion to the south is more hilly, rising to 160 feet above
sea level at Telegraph Hill and it is predominantly residential in character.
Nevertheless the northern half of the borough houses slightly more than
half the residents, the houses being in general smaller and more crowded
than those in the southern part of the Borough.
The extent of crowding on an area basis is however less than before the
war, as it was in the northern half that the majority of houses which were
totally destroyed by enemy action had been situated.
The number of occupants per house has diminished since 1938 when
there were 18,572 houses for a population of 95,460 as compared with the
present 16,123 houses for 76,580 persons. This gives an average of 514
persons per 100 houses in 1938, and 475 persons in 1950.