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any rate began to become more prevalent about 10 or 12 years ago. Under this system some half
dozen or a dozen individuals have immediate control of the majority of the houses in these streets ;
these individuals are said in many instances to be merely "weekly tenants," many of them occupy one
of the houses of which they have charge, and the remaining houses (two, three or as many
as ten or a dozen in some instances) are let "furnished" (sometimes by the night only)
or unfurnished, but each room, as a rule, to a separate tenant. Some of these keepers of
houses of furnished or unfurnished rooms are also keepers of common lodging-houses. The
extension of common lodging-houses in this district in the early eighties no doubt brought
with it, as it has done in many other parts of London, a tendency to the development, side
by side with such establishments, of tenemented houses providing a greater degree of privacy than
the common lodging-house affords, together with a freedom from police inspection—and since 1894,
from inspection by the Council's inspectors. In the early nineties these houses had begun to give a
distinctive character to the district, and in the years succeeding, as is usually the case when this kind
of house is allowed to work out its own development, not only the sanitary but the " moral aspect" of
the question began to excite comment. Matters culminated in the Daily News article already mentioned,
and in a series of inquiries lo be hereafter again referred to. It may be added that during the
last few years there has been a tendency for the character of streets in the neighbourhood of the
special area to deteriorate, and that in North Kensington several streets far removed from Notting
Dale have, of late, acquired a character almost as unenviable as that of the " special area " itself.
Statistics.
The population of Kensington, when last enumerated in 1896, was 170,465*, as compared with
166,308 in 1891.

There is a noteworthy excess, as compared with the figures for London as a whole, of females
in the Kensington population, which in 1896 comprised 103,463 females, and only 67,002 males.
This excess is much more marked in the Brompton sub-district of Kensington than it is in the
Kensington Town sub-district, and in the former sub-district especially (judging by the latest
available figures, those of 1891) is particularly apparent between the ages of 15 and 35. It is no
doubt in large measure due to the domestic servant element in the population.
The Kensington Town sub-district (population 122,164 in 1896) contains nearly three times as
large a number of persons as the Brompton sub-district (population 48,301 in 1896). Dr. Dudfield,
writing in 1893, pointed out that—"The Town sub-district still includes some open spaces, as Hollandpark
and Notting-barn Farm. The Brompton sub-district, in which the builder has been busy of late
years, many of the houses being of a palatial character, is now practically covered. The sub-districts
present marked differences which must be borne in mind in any comparison of their vital statistics.
In Brompton the rich and well-to-do form a large proportion of the population, whilst in the Town
sub-district there is a considerable and, as I believe, an increasing percentage of persons of the
poorer classes."†
The total rates raised in Kensington amounted in the year 1895-96 to 6s. l½d., in 1896-97 to
5s. l1d. and in 1897-98 to 5s. 8½d. in the £. The equalisation charge, being the excess of the contribution
over the grant, paid by Kensington to the Equalisation Fund, amounted for the first half-year
of 1898-99 to £8,931 2s., and for thesecond half-year to £9,026 33. 7d., being a total of £17,957 5s. 7d.
for the year, equivalent to a rate of 2.04d. in the £.
In 1891 there were 4,132 foreigners (1,690 males and 2,442 females) living in Kensington. Of
this number 868 returned France and 1,221 returned Germany as the country of their birth.
The birth-rates for the years 1896, 1897 and 1898 were 21.4, 21.5 and 21.2, and were thus
much below the birth rates of London for those years (30.2, 30.0 and 29.4 respectively). The marriage
rates in Kensington were 20.1, 19.7, and 19.2 in 1896, 1897, and 1898, and in London in those years
were 18.0, 18.5 and 18.7. The following table compares the death rate in Kensington from all causes
and from the principal zymotic diseases per 1,000 living, and the number of deaths under one year
to 1,000 births, with the corresponding figures for London as a whole‡—
*Dr. Dudfield has discussed in his annual reports the influence exercised upon the 1891 enumeration of the
fact that the census was taken "during the Easter holidays, when many families were out of town." The
enumeration of 1896 was made just before Easter, and, as Dr. Dudfield says, the result confirms, to some degree
at least, the view that he had expressed that the 1891 total was smaller than it would have been had it not been
for the holiday influence, for the increase of population between 1891 and 1896 was greater by 1,000 than that
botween 1881 and 1891.
†Annual report for the year 1893, p. 2.
‡These death rates are fully corrected for institutions, i.e., by the exclusion of deaths of persons not
belonging to but occurring in institutions situated within London, and by the inclusion of deaths of persons
belonging to but occurring in institutions situated outside London.