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
Islington 1893
Thirty-eighth annual report on the health and sanitary condition of the Parish of St. Mary, Islington
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TableIX.
| Districts. | Tenements consisting of | Totals. | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 room. | 2 rooms. | 3 rooms. | 4 rooms. | ||
| Islington | 4.75 | 8.94 | 4.30 | 2.25 | 20.24 |
| London | 5.07 | 7.80 | 4.55 | 2.17 | 19.59 |
| Urban | 1.62 | 4.42 | 3.46 | 2.82 | 12.31 |
| Rural | 0.25 | 2.48 | 2.83 | 2.90 | 8.46 |
In Islington and London as a whole the tenements consisting of
one and two rooms are most numerous. They form I7.69 and
23.01 per cent. of the total tenements in the Parish, and 18.40 and
20.23 per cent. in the Metropolis. These percentages are in marked
contrast to the low percentages of the Urban and Rural Districts,
in which the combined percentages for the single and two-roomed
tenements are less than the percentage of the two-roomed tenements
in Islington and also in London.
Now, in Table VIII., it is observed that where overcrowding occurs
in the single and double tenements of the Urban and Rural Districts it
is greater than either in Islington or in London. But fortunately for these
places, as I have shown, they have comparatively few tenements of
these classes, while, on the contrary, Islington and London possess an
abnormal number. This is most unfortunate, for as I have already
stated overcrowding in one and two rooms is the very worst description
of it. If the premises be granted—which my personal observation has
long since taught me to be sound—that people, as a rule, endeavour to
keep one room solely as a “living”-room, wherein they perform all the
ordinary household duties and dwell during the day, but do not sleep
during the night, then the matter is capable of proof.