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5
[1904

These figures cover a period of one hundred years, and depict the steady
growth of the population from census to census. That this growth could be
maintained at the same rate of increase from period to period was of course impossible,
but that it should have fallen off so greatly since 1881 is somewhat surprising.
It is not that the houses in Islington are so fully occupied that
they cannot hold any more people, for that this is not the case is
proved by the fact that, at the present time, there are over 1,300 empty
houses in the borough. These are, however, nearly all of the better class,
houses of high rentals, and situated in neighbourhoods to which the clerk,
the artisan, or the labourer do not resort. That so many houses of this class
are empty is due to the increased facilities now given by railway companies
and tramways to live in the country, to the desire to live in flats, and to the
servant difficulty, which forces people to seek out non-basement houses, of
which there are comparatively few in the borough. There is little doubt that
if these empty houses had been built without basements, none or very
few, would be empty to-day. Living underground, in however slight a degree,
is repugnant to persons imbued with the teachings of modern sanitation,
and consequently people, especially educated people, will not live in houses so
built. These are not cheerful views for the owners of basement or semibasement
houses in this borough, but the fact that they are correct will be
endorsed by nearly every property agent in Islington, who will also declare
that a non-basement house if in a good condition is snatched up the moment
it is announced to be let.
The continued increase of the population, slow though it be, is due
entirely to the continued invasions of the Borough by the working classes, who