View report page

4
Parish of St. George the Martyr, Southicark.
Boundaries.—The parish, in shape somewhat like a hatchet, is surrounded by no
less than six other Sanitary Districts. It is bounded on the north by St. Saviour and
St. Olave, on the west by Lambeth, on the South by Newington and Camberwell,
and on the east by Bermondsey.
Geological Formation —The sub-soil of Southwark consists of porous "made" earth,
sand, and gravel, of a depth of fifteen to twenty-five feet, overlying the London
Clay. Saline Springs rise at times to the surface, and in certain excavated parts of
the parish—e.g., Theatre and Music Hall, necessitate the constant use of pumps.
Elevation.—The district is low-lying and flat, and is situate at an average of half a
foot below the Trinity high water mark of the Thames, as against a mean elevation
for London of 47.5 feet above the same mark.
Houses.—At the Census of 1891, there were 6,946 inhabited houses, 732
uninhabited, and 44 buildings, containing an average of 8.5 persons to a house.
According to the 1881 Census, the inhabited houses numbered 6,761—-i.e., 185 less
than in 1891.
The decrease in the number of inhabited houses in the London Road Sub-district
may be traced to two chief causes—first, the exodus of population which is going
on steadily from all the central metropolitan districts, and which is materially aided
by the increasing facilities for cheap transit; secondly, the demolition and closing of
many insanitary houses.

St. George's has a population density of 211 to the acre—that is to say, about
four times that of London, and four hundred times that of the United Kingdom.
Its number of tenements is almost exactly double that of its inhabited houses. Of
the tenement occupiers, one-third live in two rooms, and another third in a single
room. In other words, about 1 in every 14 of your population is born, grows up,
drinks, eats, sleeps, and often dies within the four walls of a one-roomed tenement.
Population.—The number of inhabitants of the whole parish and of each subdistrict
has not increased in the same proportion as in the rest of London. This fact
was fully dealt with in my report of 1893.
Births and Birth-Rate.
Table II. gives the births and birth-rate per 1000 per annum for the years
1893 and 1894 in each sub-district of the parish, in London, and in the 33
large English towns.