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
Kensington 1902
Annual report on the health, sanitary condition, etc., etc., of the Royal Borough of Kensington for the year1902
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The rate in Kensington, always in excess of that of London, as a whole, was 161 in 1901,
and 9 per 1,000 lower than the average in the preceding ten years.* The rate varied widely
in the different parts of the Borough, as shown in the following table, in which the number of
births and the birth-rate are also shown.
Births and Birth-Rate and Infantile Mortality in 1901.
| Locality. | Population. | Births. | Birth Rate. | Deaths 0-1 year. | Infantile Mortality per 1,000 registered Births. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Borough | 177,000 | 3,602 | 20.4 | 581 | 161 | |
| Sub-districts— | ||||||
| Kensington | 128,300 | 3,046 | 23.7 | 506 | 166 | |
| Brompton | 48,700 | 556 | 11.4 | 75 | 135 | |
| Parliamentary Divisions— | ||||||
| North Kensington | 91,250 | 2,576 | 28.2 | 447 | 173 | |
| South Kensington | 85,750 | 1,026 | 11.9 | 184 | 131 | |
| Wards— | ||||||
| North K. | St. Charles | 22,000 | 587 | 26.7 | 102 | 174 |
| Golborne | 26,370 | 941 | 85.7 | 168 | 178 | |
| Norland | 23,510 | 624 | 26.5 | 129 | 207† | |
| Pembridge | 19,370 | 424 | 21.9 | 48 | 113 | |
| South K. A | Holland | 20,440 | 266 | 13.0 | 34 | 128 |
| Earl's Court | 18,090 | 216 | 11.9 | 31 | 148 | |
| Queen's Gate | 14,800 | 125 | 8.7 | 20 | 160‡ | |
| Bedcliffe | 18,740 | 251 | 1..4 | 31 | 123 | |
| Brompton | 14,180 | 168 | 11.8 | 18 | 107 | |
The table shows an excess of infantile mortality above the London rate in three of the
wards in North Kensington: St. Charles, Golborne, and Norland, the parts of the Borough
where the population is poorest and most dense.
The rate varies in different years according to the prevalence, above or below average, of
infantile diseases, especially diarrhoea, a malady fatal every year to thousands of infants in the
first year of life; it is safer, therefore, for purposes of comparison of rates of infantile mortality, to
take decennial periods.
Comparing the rate in the ten years 1891-1900 (170 per 1,000) with the rate in the ten
years 1871-1880 (159 per 1,000), it is observed that, with a general death-rate in the first ten
years 2.2 per 1,000 of the population below that in the ten years 1871-80, the infantile mortality
rate is greater by 11 per 1,000 births.
And this is not the only disquieting circumstance, for whilst in the earlier decennial period
the birth-rate in the Borough averaged 30.7, in the ten years 1891-1900 it had fallen to 21.6—
a decrease of 9.1 per 1,000.
* The rates in 1902 were lower all round, having been in England and Wales 133, London 139, and Kensington 148 per
1,000 births registered.
† The infantile mortality-rate in the " Special Area," in Norland Ward, in the six years 1896-1901, averaged 447; in 1901
it was 411.
‡ The excessive rate in Queen's Gate Ward is due to the location therein of the Workhouse, and to the necessity for
debiting to the Ward a number of deaths of children at that institution the previous abodes of whose mothers could not be
traced. Eleven of the 20 deaths occurred at the Workhouse, and in respect of seven of them the previous abode of the mother
was not known.