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In 1871 the population was 120,299, in 1881 163,151; increase
42,852. At the middle of 1885 the inhabited houses were
21,418 and the estimated population 172,000.
Registration Sub-Districts.—For registration purposes the
parish is unequally divided into two "sub-districts," "Kensington
Town," hereinafter for brevity designated "Town," and
"Brompton." The Town sub-district comprises an area of
1,497 acres, that of Brompton being 693 acres. The population
of the Town sub-district at the middle of 1885 was about
127,200, and that of Brompton 44,800. The Town sub-district
includes some open spaces, as Holland Park and Notting Barn
Farm. The Brompton sub-district, in which the builder has been
active of late years, many of the new houses being of a palatial
character, is now nearly covered. The West London or Brompton
Cemetery is in this sub-district, and the Kensal Green Cemetery
in the Town sub-district. These cemeteries, it is to be regretted,
are still in active use.
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 probably an. increasing percentage of persons of the poorer
classes. The poor in Kensington, however, are better oft' in one
respect than the poor in some other parts of the Metropolis, in
that, for the most part, they live in well-built houses obviously
intended for occupation by the lower middle class ; miles of streets
of such houses being now inhabited by persons of a class who
in some of the older parts of the Metropolis live in dwellings that
by comparison might be termed "squalid."