London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London

Lewisham 1860

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Limehouse]

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Table: THE CENSUS, 1851.

THE CENSUS, 1851.

Houses.Population.
Inhabited.Unin habited.Males.Females.Persons.No. of Persons pet House.
Limehouse3,27418111,10311,53322,606......6.9
Ratcliff2,1261176,8788,00114,879......7.0
Shadwell1,5621125,5595,81911,378......7.2
Wapping483411,9342,1934,127......8.5
7,44545125,47427,54653,020.........

Table: 1861.

1861.

Houses.Population.
InhabitedUninhabited.Males.Females.Persons.Increase in ten Years.Decrease in ten Years.No. of Persons per House.
Limehouse3,69222713,19713,78026,9774,341...7.3
Ratcliff2,2641058,1248,70216,8201,947...7.4
Shadwell1,0711123,8804,7057,905...3,4707.3
Wapping435671,8232,0983,921...2069.0
7,46251126,97428,65555,6296,2883,676...

Text

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This statement gives the net increase for the District during the
ten years 2,612, a number altogether out of proportion to the general
growth of the population. The demolition of nearly 600 houses in
Shadwell and Wapping in the interval, will at once explain the
anomaly. But the weeding of this portion of the District of so
large a number of the poorer dwellings for the enlargement of the
London Docks, however beneficial in itself, is not without some
relative evils. It has, of course, given rise, if not to overcrowding, at
least to a thickening of the population in the remaining portions of
those as well as in the neighbouring Parishes, as the calculations will