View report page

Infirmary. The deaths in asylums numbered 29. The
number of institutions in which the extra parochial deaths
are distributed is nearly 40.
In September the registration districts of Leather Market
and St. James' were united, and the registration area is
now one district for the whole of the parish.
The population, at the middle of the year, is estimated to
be 85,738 persons. This is probably an under-estimate, as
the number of artisans' dwellings increases year by year,
and the demand for small houses is not in the least abated.
I am strongly of opinion that the present density of 137
persons per acre is quite sufficient to affect the death-rate
unfavourably, and that any further crowding of more
people on a limited area, which is destitute of open spaces,
is not desirable from a sanitary point of view. The question
of overcrowding has been exaggerated and misrepresented.
The fact that a person with a large family is unable
to find a house or a room in the parish to suit his
requirements is no proof whatever that a single house is
overcrowded, or has not the necessary cubic space for its
inmates, but, on the contrary, it is a proof that overcrowding
is not permitted in Bermondsey, that the Vestry's By-
Laws are stringent, and are carried out with due vigilance
by the Inspectors, and that without such By-Laws and constant
inspection a lamentable amount of overcrowding
would very rapidly take place. Whether the area of the