View report page

London County Council.
HOMELESS PERSONS.
Report by the Medical Officer submitting the result of a census of homeless persons
taken on the night of 18th February, 1910.
(Ordered, by the Council to be printed 14th June, 1910).
On several occasions during the six years just past the Public Health Committee has
instructed me to take a census of homeless persons in London, and the fifth of these enumerations
was made on the night of the 18th February, 1910. The following figures enable comparison to
be made of the several results:—

* Since my report for 1909 was printed it has been ascertained that 300 men wore provided with food and
shelter for a few hours at the Salvation Army lodging house in Middlesex-street, City. Those'figures were not included
in that report, but opportunity has been taken in the present return of including them wherever they affected the
total numbers.
† Men accommodated for a few hours in shelters but unprovided with beds.
As mentioned in my last report on homeless persons, the figures for 1904 relate to an area
somewhat smaller than that included in more recent years, and it is estimated that if the same
area had been covered the number might have been 2,000 in that year.
The system instituted last year by the Salvation Army, of allowing homeless persons to rest
for several hours in a shelter where they were also fed, has been continued during the past winter,
the majority of the men being received in a large building in Great Peter-street, Westminster,
which the Army is adapting for use as a common lodging house. On the night of the 18th
February, 1910, 850 men were provided for in this shelter, 300 men at a shelter in Middlesexstreet,
City, and 278 men at another shelter in Blackfriars-road, Southwark. In the King's Tents
belonging to the Church Army there were 78 men at work; whilst in a shelter opened in conjunction
with the Tents there were 139 men waiting for their turn at wood-chopping, which entitled them
to food and a ticket for a bed in a common lodging house on a subsequent night. In other
institutions, affording shelter and food only, there were 133 men. Thus the total number of
persons provided with food and shelter but no bed was 1,778. To this number must be added 969
persons found in the streets, giving a total of 2,510 men, 220 women, and 17 young persons
under the age of 16 years, including one girl. This figure, however, does not represent the total
number of persons who might be regarded as homeless on the night of the enumeration, inasmuch
as several licensed common lodging houses provide free accommodation, and there are, moreover,
some night refuges, not licensed by the Council, providing free beds for the destitute. The
inmates of these institutions numbered some 2,350 persons, i.e., about 1,290 in free common lodging
houses, and about 1,060 in the unlicensed institutions to which reference has just been made.
The persons occupying these institutions have not been included among the homeless in previous
years owing to the difficulty of obtaining accurate information, and they have been therefore again
omitted in order that the figures for the several years may be strictly comparable. The Church
Army, the " Christian Herald " (Willow Street) Mission, and other charitable bodies too, distribute
tickets entitling tho holder to a night's lodging at a common lodging house, and from inquiry
at the several common lodging houses I learn that on the night of the census at least 368 men
and 80 women availed themselves of this means of obtaining shelter. For the sake of convenience
the information contained in this paragraph has been summarised, and will be found in
Table V. at the end of this report.
The figures relating to the years 1909 and 1910, given in the above table, show that 149 more,
men obtained free food and shelter in the later than the earlier year, and the number of men, women
and young persons apparently under sixteen years of age found in the streets was in the later year
greater by 210. There was thus an increase in the number of actually homeless persons of 359.
714 S.S./2084