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under which is the great bed of London clay. The low
natural level is a drawback to the efficient drainage of
the district, and the basements of many houses are
flooded after heavy rain, especially when occurring at
high tide, owing to the surcharging of the main County
Council sewers. It is hoped that the improvements in
their main drainage system, now proposed by the
London County Council, may have some effect in
remedying this serious evil. The advantages of the
admirable subsoil have been reduced by the removal
by builders and others from some localities of the sand
and gravel and the substitution of more or less objectionable
matter.
With the exception of some 70 acres belonging to the
Hurlingham Club, the grounds of the Bishop of
London's Palace, Earl's Court Exhibition and Queen's
Club, practically the whole of Fulham is now built over.
Open Spaces.—Excluding two cemeteries, there are
68 acres of open spaces dedicated to the public—51
acres belonging to the borough and 17 to the County
Council. The southern part of the borough is well
provided with open spaces, but a recreation ground is
badly needed in the north-east. The only land available
is that formerly occupied by the Earl's Court
Exhibition, and the Council should make all possible
efforts to obtain this for an open space.
Social Conditions.—Fulham is, in the main, a working
class residential district. During the period of its
most active growth from 1881 to 1891 some seven thousand
working-class houses were erected, and active
building of houses largely of the same type continued
until about 1913, while many houses originally intended
to be occupied by one family are now let out in
tenements without, in many cases, any steps having
been taken to adapt them for that purpose.
The local industries, the number of which has considerably
increased during the last few years, are of a
varied character, the chief being gas works, motor
works, laundries, distilleries, breweries, and biscuit,
margarine, glucose and wallpaper manufactories.