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In regard to occupation and status of the Finsbury population it
may be said that in the main it is industrial. The Borough is
rapidly becoming more and more a centre of commerce and manufacture.
With one or two exceptions the district is not a good
residential one, most of the inhabitants merely living in the Borough
to be near their work. Particularly is this so in the Finsbury (or
St. Luke) Sub-registration District. Large factories abound, although
the main street frontages are used, in considerable measure,
for small shops, which however carry on a considerable trade. In
North Clerkenwell there are some residential neighbourhoods. The
Census (1901) shows that whereas 23 per cent. of the families or
separate occupiers in London as a whole keep domestic servants,
only 7•8 per cent. of the families in Finsbury do so.* The Census
also returns 59,654 persons as unmarried, 35,599 as married, and
6,210 as widowed. Pinsbury and Holborn are further characterised
by the comparatively large percentage of foreigners living within
their boundaries. The question of the relationship between the
population and housing will be considered at a later stage of the
present report (see page 125).
° This test of domestic servants has been used by various authorities as
indicative of the status of a population. The lowest percentages in London
occur in Shoreditch 5•5, Bethnal Green 5•6, and Bermondsey 6•5. The highest
occur in Hampstead, where 79•8 per cent. of occupiers keep domestic servants
Kensington 74•9, and the City of Westminster, 53•3.