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accommodating 98 persons, has been closed during the year. There
are no Salvation Army Shelters in Finsbury. There is one Church
Army Asylum in Banner Street. Three Common Lodging-houses
(accommodating 176 persons) have been closed in the last two years.
(5) Model Dwellings.—There are 202 blocks of so-called
"model dwellings" in Finsbury, containing 3,978 tenements, and
accommodating 17,000 persons. A list of these appeared in my
report for 1903 (p. 154.)
(6) Underground Rooms.—Under Sections 96 and 97 of
the Public Health (London) Act, 1891, there have been 20
illegal occupations of underground rooms abated. In a large
number of other instances re-adjustment in the house has reduced
the illegal occupation.
(7) Customs and Inland Revenue Acts.—No action.
General Conclusions.—As we have seen in previous
reports:—
1. The population of Finsbury reached its zenith between
1851 and 1861.
2. The number of inhabited houses was greatest in 1851.
3. Since these respective dates there has been a steady and
uninterrupted decline both in houses and population.
But whereas the population has declined 21 per cent., the
number of inhabited houses has declined 31 per cent.
The chief decline in the houses occurred between 1881 and
1891, whilst the chief decline in the population took place in the
decennium between 1871 and 1881. These changes occurred in
the most marked degree in those portions of the Borough in
immediate proximity to the boundary of the City of London.
Such changes inevitably resulted in overcrowding, and there
was, in fact, a greater number of persons per house in Finsbury
in 1901 (10.9), as compared with London as a whole (8.0).
From these figures it is clear (i) that the population of
Finsbury is a declining one; (ii) that the density of population
per acre is a declining one ; but (iii) that the density per house is
an increasing one. Time and the ordinary process of events, if