London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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Kensington 1915

Annual report of the Medical Officer of Health 1915

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HOUSING OF THE WORKING CLASSES The number of inhabited and empty dwellings or tenements in the Borough in the Census year 1911 was as follows:—

District.Dwellings or Tenement.
Inhabited.Uninhabited. Dwellings.
Separately Occupied Tenements.Institutions.
St. Charles and Golborne (= North)11,29914203
Norland and Pembridge (= Central)9,46351413
North Kensington (=North and Central)20,76265616
South Kensington (=South)17,3562041,474
The Borough38,1182692,090

The figure 38,118 used in the above Table to represent separately occupied tenements is the
figure which represents in the Census returns the number of families or households separately
occupying their own homes. Each set of one or more rooms occupied by a separate family in a
house let in lodgings has accordingly been shown in the first column of the table as a separate
dwelling or tenement. In the Rate Collector's returns a house let in lodgings and occupied by
members of more than one family is reckoned as a single house, and computed on this basis the
inhabited houses in the Borough in 1915 numbered 27,919. In both returns a self-contained
tenement or flat as distinct from a set of rooms in a lodging house has been reckoned separately as
an inhabited house or dwelling. The second column of the Table shows the number of institutions
and large private establishments used as dwellings in the Borough, and the third column gives the
number of uninhabited dwellings. It is not possible to estimate how many of the total number of
uninhabited dwellings are available for the working classes, but from inquiries which have been
made the number of vacant and available rooms in North Kensington is known, and exceeds 1,000.

Lodgings provided by the Council.—The total number of tenements provided by the Council for the working classes under the Housing Acts is shown in the following Table:—

Rooms in Tenement.Number of Tenements.Rent per Week.
1262/6 to 3/6
2625/6 to 7/-
3327/- to 8/-
Totals1202/6 to 8/-

The above tenements provided by the Council are all within the Borough. At the end of the
year 117 were let and 3 were empty.
Houses Let in Lodgings.—The number of houses let in lodgings on the Council's register
at the end of the year was 2,0G5, as compared with 2,071 at the end of 1914, the difference being
due to the removal of six houses therefrom. The effect of registration is to render the premises
subject to the requirements of the Council's Bye-Laws made under Section 94 of the Public Health
(London) Act, 1891, as extended by Section 16 of the Housing, Town Planning, etc., Act, 1909,