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POPULATION
The estimated population for 1922, as supplied by the Registrar
General, was 187,220, and the various rates in my report have been calculated
on that figure. Southwark being a district completely built over,
beyond the reconstruction and remodelling of old buildings, few new
buildings have been erected. Two additional new blocks on the Tabard
Street area have been completed. The representations made in 1919 of
the East Street area and two or three smaller areas are still being considered
by the London County Council, but no definite decision, up to
the present time, has been arrived at.
During the year many of our formerly out of work people have
found employment. There is in Southwark a large number of casual
labourers, carmen, and unemployable persons. I am afraid that in the
future owing to our boys not being attached or apprenticed to a trade we
shall see a great increase of unemployment and ill-equipped men, and
consequently more general poverty. It is surprising even to those who
know the district, how men who have not worked for years manage to
keep themselves and their families in good condition and fairly well
dressed. There must be an enormous number of charitable agencies to
which they successfully appeal.
As I have reported on many occasions Southwark is a district
abounding in trades using partly manufactured materials, and such being
the case unemployment would naturally fall more heavily upon such a
district than upon those in which raw materials enter more largely into
their staple trades.