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the tables have been collated from the reports of the medical officers to the Privy
Council and Local Government Board, the Census returns, the annual summaries of
births and deaths published by the authority of the Registrar General, the reports of
my predecessors, Drs. Robert Barnes, Gawen Sutton and F. J. Allan, and from my
own annual reports.
The London Government Act, 1899, which came into operation in November 1900,
caused certain changes to be made in the boundaries of the Borough resulting in some
slight increase in the population and the number of houses in Shoreditch. These
changes, taking place as they did late in the year, so far as the statistical portion of this
year's report is concerned have been disregarded.

The registration district of Hoxton New Town contains the Holborn Union
Workhouse. The inmates of the Institution averaging 1,385 for the year 1900 are not
persons belonging to Shoreditch, and for certain statistical purposes they are not included
in the population of Hoxton New Town and Shoreditch, which become therefore
'28,475, and 119,950 respectively.
From the time of the first census to that of 1861, the population of Shoreditch
increased rapidly. Since then there has been a gradual decrease owing probably to
a very great extent to the erection of warehouses, workshops, factories and other larger
business premises upon sites formerly occupied by dwelling-houses which have been
cleared away to make room for them. In 1851 the population of Shoreditch was
109,257 ; in 1861, it was 129,364 ; in 1871 it was 127,164; in 1881 it was 126,591;
in 1891 it was 124,009, and in 1896 the London census gave 122,358 as the population
of Shoreditch.
BIRTHS.
The births registered in 1900 numbered 4,023, of which 2,058 were male and 1,965
female. In the Shoreditch Infirmary 68 births took place, 35 of male, and 33 of
females, 29 being legitimate and 39 illegitimate. In the Holborn Union Workhouse