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121
Report of the Medical Officer of Health.
fewer cases of actual overcrowding, and although there may be
greater congestion of the population in certain districts it seems
that actual overcrowding in the legal sense is rare.
A special inspection of 1,167 houses in different parts of the
Borough showed that in only 54, or a percentage of 4.8, were there
more than two persons occupying one room, while in the whole
Borough at the census of 1911, this percentage was 5.9.
(2) Causes.—The greater number of cases was due to domestic
overcrowding, the number of rooms available for sleeping purposes
being too few for the size of the family. A certain number of cases
was due to subletting.
At the census of 1911 the percentage of population in private
families living more than two in a room was 6.3, compared with
17.8 in the metropolis as a whole, the only Borough in London
having a lower percentage being Lewisham, where it was 3.9.
(3) Measures taken or contemplated to deal with overcrowding.—
The Council has prepared schemes for the erection of 1,320 houses,
and this will to a large extent relieve the congestion which exists
in some parts of the Borough.
(4) Principal cases of overcrowding dealt with during the year
and action taken.—Notices under the Public Health Act were
served in each case, and in nearly all the cases the overcrowding
was abated by the rearrangement of the sleeping accommodation.
III.—FITNESS OF HOUSES.
(1) (a) General standard of housing in the district.—In 1881
the total number of inhabited houses in the Borough was 15,300,
while in 1919 the estimated number was 56,320, an increase of
41,020. As 70 per cent. of the houses have been erected during
the last 30 years the standard of housing is comparatively high.
There are, however, approximately 2,000 houses in the Borough
which fall below a reasonable standard, and these are chiefly old
houses where the rooms are small. There are in addition about 1,600
houses which, although built for one family and which if occupied
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