View report page

59
Another feature of the housing stress in the borough consists
in the use of basements for dwelling1 purposes. There are
in Finsbury 2,670 basements used to this end. Of these 042
have their ceilings at or below the level of the adjoining street.
In 824 basements the width of the area in the street is 3 feet or
less. In 653 basements the width of the area lies between 3 and
4 feet.
At the 1921 census, there were in Finsbury 4,917 families,
out of a total number of 20,005 families, occupying one room
each per family.
These 4,917 families comprised 9,296 persons. Amongst
them were :—
39 families of 6 persons each;
8 families of 7 persons each;
1 family of 8 persons;
2 families of 9 persons ;
1 family of 11 persons;
all occupying one room per family.
There were 7,253 families (26,332 persons) occupying each
2 rooms per family.
On the statistical basis of the number of rooms per person,
Shorcditch was the worst in London, followed closely by Finsbury.
The numbers were: Shorcditch .65 rooms per person,
Finsbury .67 rooms per person, Southwark .73 rooms per person,
Bermondsey .75 rooms per person, and Poplar .76 rooms per
person.
In the whole of London, taken by wards, there were 4 wards
where these factors were less than .60 per person. One of these
was in Stepney, three in Finsbury. On the Registrar-General's
standards, the percentage deficiency of rooms was greatest in
Finsbury.
Overcrowding is defined by the Registrar-General as including
only those houses or tenements where there is on an average
more than 2 persons per room. In this connection the following
figures have been extracted from the Census Report for 1921
(County of London, Text page 12).