View report page

REPORT
ON
THE SANITARY CONDITION OF THE PARISH 0F BERMONDSEY
FOR THE YEAR 1863,
By WILLIAM PARKER, M.D., Medical Officer of Health.
To the Vestry of Bermondsey.
Gentlemen,
Before entering into the consideration of the vital statistics of our Parish, it
is of great importance to obtain as correct an estimate as possible of the number
of its inhabitants.
The population of London within the weekly tables increased at the rate of
1,975 per cent, annually in the ten years ending 1851, and at the rate of 1,722 in
the ten years ending 1861. In Bermondsey the rate of increase was 3,688 and
2,170, for the same periods respectively. In both instances the rate of increase
decreased, and the increase during; the 5£ years, from the middle of the ten
years 1853-62 to June 1863, was for London, at a rate between and of
the population, but for Bermondsey about J.
The Parish of Bermondsey is rapidly increasing by immigration, at a rate
difficult to be decided, in the absence of an annual census. In the ten years
preceding the census of 1861, the natural increase, or that arising from the excess
of births over deaths was 7,903, and that by immigration 2,324. The natural
increase in the years 1861-62-63, was respectively 1,134, 1,142, and 1,050. A
proportionate influx would add about 340 more to the population yearly, or an
addition of about 3,250 since the date of the census in 1861 to the middle of
1863. By this calculation the population of Bermondsey would appear to have
been about 61,450 in the year 1863.
The number of inhabited houses in Bermondsey in the years 1841 1851
and 1861, was respectively 5,667, 7,095 and 8,210. The population at these
several periods was 34,947, 48,128 and 58,355, or 6.2, 6.7 and 7.11 residents in
each house. It will thus be observable that there was a gradual increase in the
density of the population. In the year 1863, the number of inhabited houses was
approximately 8,620. Now if we take 7.11 as the average number of persons
in each house, we shall show a population in Bermondsey of nearly 61 300
persons.
The inference to be drawn from the above calculations is that instead of the
rate of increase decreasing it has somewhat increased during the last two years,
also that the density of our population is becoming greater, and that our annual
increase on the total population of the Parish is at the rate of at least 2.5 per
cent. It will therefore be correct in our weekly statistics to add instead of
1/10 for increase of population during the last decenniad.
The population of Bermondsey in 1863, may safely be taken for our present
purpose, at about 61,400, of which number death deprived us of 1,576, a number
which was more than restored by 2,626 births, giving us a natural increase of
1,050. The proportion of births to the population was 42-77 in the thousand
and the death rate 25'66. The death rate for all London was 24-52.
This death rate is somewhat unsatisfactory, as that for 1862 was hut 23 in
the thousand, and that for the previous ten years averaged 24-8 to which average
the last two years have now returned. It is unsatisfactory also to reflect that the