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
Finsbury 1902
Report on the public health of 1902
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154
entire population); 33,972 persons live in two-room tenements
(i.e., 31.4 per cent.) ; 20,872 persons live in three-room tenements
(i.e., 19.3 per cent.), and 10,142 persons live in four-room
tenements (or 9.4 per cent.).
The Census Report for 1901 gives the following figures in respect to the occupiers of tenements of less than five rooms :—
| Kooms in tenement. | Tenements of less than 5 rooms. | Persons per Tenement. | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| I | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | " | 12 ormore | |||
The proportion of tenements with less than live rooms averages
65.9 per cent, of the total number of tenements in the County of
London. It is lowest in Lewisham (30.9), and highest in Finsbury
(85.1). The proportion of single room tenements (which averaged
14.7 per cent, in all London), ranges from 3.5 per cent, in
Lewisham to 26.4 in Finsbury and 27.0 in Holborn. Finsbury
is characterised more than any other Borough in London by
tenement dwellings of less than five rooms.
When we turn to the inhabitants of these tenements, we find
that as many as 77.4 per cent, of the whole population of the
Borough live in tenements of less than five rooms ; 14,516 persons
live in single-room homes (i.e., 14.3 per cent, of the entire
population) ; 31,482 persons live in two-room tenements (i.e.,
31.2 per cent.) ; 21,280 persons live in three-room tenements (or
20.9 per cent.), and 11,168 live in four-room tenements (or 11.0
per cent.). It will be noted on comparison of these figures with
those of the 1891 Census that the overcrowding of Finsbury