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
Walthamstow 1920
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Walthamstow]
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22
The preceeding figures are those given by the Registrar-General in his
Annual Summary. The figure 62 as the Walthamstow Infantile
Mortality rate is based on 199 deaths in children under one year.
The total births were given as 3,286, and if these figures are correct our
Infantile Mortality rate would be 60-5 and not 6*2. From the data at
my disposal the correct figure is 59-9.
ACCORDING TO WARDS.
The number of deaths and their distribution into Wards is as ascertained, but the populations assigned to the Wards are those of 1914:-
| St. James Street. | High Street. | Hoe Street. | Wood Street. | Hale End. | Higham Hill. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Population | 26,400 | 21,500 | 25,400 | 18,800 | 18,400 | 24,000 |
| Deaths | 277 | 191 | 26.8 | 199 | 160 | 198 |
| Death-rate (1920) | 10.0 | 8. | 10.5 | 10.50 | 8.6 | 8.2 |
| ,,(1914) | 12.0 | 11.1 | 11.0 | 11.40 | 9.2 | 8.2 |
| ,,(1901) | 15.13 | 12.8 | 11.5 | 12.05 | 15.27 | |
The causes of death for the Whole District and for the Wards are
given in the Table following page 22.
The highest death-rates are those in the St. James Street, Hoe Street
and Wood Street Wards, and the lowest that in Higham Hill. The
mortality figures are an improvement on those of the pre-war period,
those of St. James Street and High Street Wards being very marked.
Taking the death-rates as a standard, the inhabitants of the St. James
Street and Wood Street Wards have greater prospects of longevity than
the residents of Rural England.
Higham Hill and Hale End Wards are largely semi-rural and on
rising ground, and this counts for a good deal, whereas the St. James
Street area in the main is only about 20 feet above ordnance datum and
is practically built over.
Added to this a very large number of its people are migrants from
the poorer London areas and content to live in tenements or mean houses.
A large proportion are occupied in casual or poor paid labour or
employed in the various London markets or docks, places which do not
tend to habits of sobriety or thrift. Added to this, there is in this Ward
a larger proportion than in the others of "first comers" who have grown
old and can no longer earn their own living. This may account for the
number whose deaths are attributed to Old Age and Cancer.
The inhabitants of Hoe Street Ward, economically, are perhaps the
most favoured in the District, yet the death-rate of the Ward is equal to
that of St. James Street and 22 per cent, greater than Higham Hill.
One associates longevity with favourable social conditions and deaths
' from Old Age, Cancer, and Diseases of the Heart and Blood Vessels are
the main factors, as one might expect, in the mortality of this Ward.