View report page

Metropolitan Borongh of Bermondsey.
ANNUAL REPORT
OF THE
MEDICAL OFFICER OF HEALTH.
To the Mayor, Aldermen, and Councillors of the
Metropolitan Borough of Bermondsey.
Gentlemen,
I have the honour to submit my Third Annual Report on the Sanitary condition of the
Metropolitan Borough of Bermondsey during the year 1903. The report deals with the 52
weeks which commence on the 3rd of January. 1903, and end on the 2nd of January, 1904.
This being the year of the Registrar General it is universally adopted in Great Britain and
Ireland in those Reports which deal with Vital Statistics.
The subject matter, as in previous reports, will be dealt with under the following heads :—
I. —Vital Statistics.
II. —Infectious Diseases and Notification.
III.—Sanitary Administration.
IV. —Factories and Workshops.
In the Appendix will be found the various tables required by the Local Government Board,
along with other tables which give summaries of the various matters dealt with in the body of
the Report.
I desire to express my thanks to the Chairman and members of the Public Health
Committee for the cordial manner in which they have supported the various sanitary measures
suggested by the Department, and also to the Chief Inspector and other officers for their
valuable assistance.
I am, gentlemen,
Your obedient servant,
R. K. BROWN.
I.—VITAL STATISTICS.
Population.
The populations of the Borough of Bermondsey and its constituent parts as enumerated
in the Census of 1891, 1896 and 1901 were —
1891.
1896.
1901.
Estimate,
1903.
85,475
82,483
82,129
84,682
Bermondsey
Rotherhithe
39,225
12,723
40,379
11,731
38,460
9,817
38,347
9,178
St. Olave's
136,660
137,585
130,760
Borough
129,654
It will be seen from these figures that there was an increase in the population between
1891 and 1896, and that between 1896 and 1901 there was a very large decrease. The change
in the latter period, as pointed out in the last two reports, is due principally to the pulling down
of a number of houses for railway extension. During 1903 a large number of houses in
Rotherhithe, near the premises of the South Metropolitan Gas Company, were pulled down to
make provision for the south approach of the projected Thames Tunnel. To accommodate the
inhabitants displaced 255 tenements have been erected in Swan Lane, the majority of which are
now occupied. The 129 tenements in Abbey Street and Tower Bridge Road are now partly
occupied. Considering these facts, I do not think that if there were an enumeration of the
population for the years under consideration that anything like the decline which took place
between 1896 and 1901 would be found. For the sake of uniformity with previous years,
however, I have taken the Registrar General's assumption th it a population increases or
decreases in geometrical progression at the same rate as it did between the two latest enumera-tions,
and have therefore placed the estimated population for 1903 beside the previous census
figures. The various rates are calculated on this figure, but in the most important rate, viz., the
death rate, a calculation based on the census figures of 1901 has been added, so that a comparison
can be made between the rate of 1901 and 1903, on the assumption that the population has not
changed.