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It will be seen from Table IV. that nearly 1,000 persons were provided with sleeping accommodation
and food in shelters, not licensed as common lodging houses, belonging to philanthropic bodies.
These persons have not been included among those of the poorest class shown in the preceding table,
as the figures for each of the previous years in which enumeration were made are not available. The
accommodation at the shelters and labour homes in question, however, is always fully used and it may
safely be assumed that no great differences in the numbers of persons thus accommodated would be
found if the figures for each of the years under review could be obtained.
On the night of the 15th January some inquiry was made at the King's Tents, maintained in conjunction
with the Church Army scheme of providing work and food for homeless men, as to the length of
time the applicants for tickets had been in London, for it has been urged that the facilities offered for
food and shelter attract men from the country. Of 158 men questioned, 55 stated they had been in
London from one week to ten months, and of these 16 said they had been here only one month or less.
This latter proportion is not so high as that obtained in 1905, when of 100 men questioned 30
admitted that they had come to London so recently as from one day to one month previously.
A point noted at the time of this inquiry was the large proportion of young men and youths found
among the homeless persons coming under observation.
In my report on the results of the census made on February 1907,1 commented on the facilities
afforded in London for obtaining cheap or free food, and pointed out that at a philanthropic institution
in Shoreditch about 600 men were fed daily at a very small cost, a substantial meal being provided
for 2d. or 3d. a head. This institution also provides some 4,000 free meals each week. At the
Church Army shelter in Millbank-street, the men are provided with a free meal of soup and bread on
entering and another similar meal when they have completed their allotted task of woodchopping.
The Salvation Army provides from 600 to 1,000 free meals of soup and bread each night, whilst in several
of their shelters the payment of 4d. entitles a man to food and a bed. The London Congregational
Union, moreover, at their shelter in Limehouse provide bread and the use of a bunk each night for
343 men free of charge and many others are here supplied with bread between midnight and 4 a.m.
Other institutions provide free food, or food and shelter, and as I pointed out in my last report it
would appear to be possible for a man to live so far as food is concerned at trifling cost to himself.
The evidence obtained as the result of the several inquiries goes to show that there has been in
recent years some diminution in the total figures giving the numbers of homeless persons and persons
of the common lodginghouse class, that there is vacant clean accommodation available for all homeless
persons at a trifling cost, and that for a limited number free accommodation and food is procurable.
I have appended the following tables summarising the information obtained on the occasion of
the last census.
Table I. shows the number of homeless persons and their distribution in certain localities.
Table II. shows the authorised accommodation in common lodging houses, the number of
beds occupied, the number of beds vacant, and the number of persons who, for various reasons, were
turned away.
Table III. shows the free accommodation in shelters provided by philanthropic bodies and
licensed by the Council, but does not include the beds in ordinary licensed common lodging houses
occupied by persons on the night of the census whose accommodation was paid for by charitable organisations.
Table IV. shows the accommodation in shelters not licensed as common lodging houses.
Table V. shows details of the number of persons turned away from licensed common lodging
houses, and the reason assigned for turning them away.
(Sgd.) Shirley F. Murphy,
Medical Officer of Health.
30th January, 1909.