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5
Although the number of rooms and occupants cannot be taken as
an absolutely sure guide, as rooms may differ considerably in size, still
it is certain that the rooms in tenements with less than five rooms will
not as a rule be large, especially in Fulham where the great
majority of these tenements are in small houses and not as in some
parts of London in large old houses with proportionally large rooms,
so that tenements with more than two occupants to a room must be
considered overcrowded. The first three classes, then, constituting 14.5
per cent. of the population, are living in an over-crowded condition.
Class D, too, constituting another 9 per cent. of the population, must
also be considered as living too closely packed and are in all probability
very poor, as poverty and crowding in Fulham where rents are
low go hand in hand together. In fact the amount of crowding in
Fulham agrees pretty closely with the amount of poverty as ascertained
by the careful enquiries of Mr. Charles Booth, who, in his "Life and
Labour of the People," gives the following classification of the population
of Fulham:-
Living in comfort 74.6 per cent.
Living in poverty 25.4 „
These being subdivided into the following classes:—
Living in Poverty.
per cent.
Class 1. The lowest class, occasional labourers, loafers, &c. 1.3
„ 2. The very poor, casual labour, hand-to-mouth existence,
chronic want 5.4
„ 3. The poor, including alike those whose earnings are
small because of irregularity of employment and
those whose work though regular is ill-paid 18.6
25.4
Living in Comfort.
per cent.
Class 4. The regularly employed and fairly well paid working
class of all grades 42.4
„ 5. Lower and upper middle class and all above that
level 32.2
74.6
B