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5. Looking at the decrease in the number of houses, our population
should have decreased in the proportion of 1716 instead of 647. St. Giles
South is the particular sub-district in which the most strenuous efforts havo
been made to abate overcrowding, yet the pressure of events has overmastered
our exertions.
Causes of the Overcrowding in St. Giles.
6. The causes of the overcrowding are, in the main, twofold. First, the
reduction of the house accommodation in the district has tended to force the
population who were deprived of their homes into the surrounding houses ;
aud, secondly, the clearances in the City of London, for the purpose of
erecting a new market and viaduct, and in the Strand District to form a site
for the proposed Law Courts, have aggravated the evil. To effect these
improvements (or chiefly so), the large number of 18,358 persons have been
removed,—in the following proportions,—Strand 6,998, St. Sepulchre, City,
4,188, St. Bride, City, 4,211, Saffron Hill 2,961.
7. The larger proportion of these people were Irish poor, who would
naturally crowd into the adjoining districts to the extent that accommodation
could be found, and especially into those Districts where their compatriots
already resided. Hence the comparative increase in portions of St. Giles.
Our district has not, however, suffered alone. St. Andrew, Eastern, has
increased from a rate of 11.96 to 12.83, and St. James, Clerkenwell, from
9.93 to 10.68.
8. The mean rate of population to houses in St. Giles District is, as
above given, 11.78 persons per house. This is much larger than the rate for
the whole metropolis, which is 7.79, whilst for England and Wales it is 5.3.
9. It must be admitted, however, that the density of the population, as
thus estimated, would be a fallacious guide, if relied upon alone, in our
inquiries as to the cause of the comparative liability to zymotic or developmental
diseases of different districts of a great city. Houses vary much in
size; and it is quite possible and likely that a small house, packed with a
dozen people, would be in a worse sanitary condition than a larger house
with double the number. We may form a rational conclusion upon the point
from a consideration of the following facts. In St. James, Westminster,
District, the rate of population to houses is 10.82; in the Strand, 10.28 ; in
St. George the Martyr, 11.07 ; in Holborn, 9.94 ; in St. George in the East,
8.14; in Kensington, 7.54; and in Bethnal Green, 7.52. Here we see that
the poor eastern district of Bethnal Green has the least density of population,
being a little lower than Kensington, which is one of the wealthiest of the
western districts. This is obviously owing to the circumstance that the
eastern districts are composed of numberless streets of small two-floored
houses; yet these distridts, notwithstanding the apparent sparseness of the
population in relation to houses, are notoriously unhealthy.
10. It is necessary, therefore, if we would obtain a correct knowledge
of the influence of overcrowding upon health, to look closer into the matter