London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Camberwell 1936
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Camberwell.
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52
(b) Is, in relation to the number and floor area of the rooms of
which the house consists, in excess of the permitted number of
persons as defined in the First Schedule to this Act.
2. In determining for the purposes of this section the number of persons
sleeping in a house, no account shall be taken of a child under one year old, and a
child who has attained one year and is under ten years old shall be reckoned as
one half of a unit.
It will be observed that the overcrowding standard consists
of two parts: (a) that there must be sufficient sleeping accommodation
in a house to secure proper sex separation; (6) a standard
of capacity which fixes in relation to the accommodation in any
particular house the maximum number of persons, irrespective of
sex, who may be permitted to sleep in the house at one time.
For the purposes of arriving at the "permitted number of
persons" in relation to any dwelling house, computation tables
appear in the First Schedule to the Act, which are here reproduced:—
TABLE A
| Number of structurally separate premises visited. | Number of empty dwellings. | Number of tenancies inspected. | Number of families found to be overcrowded. | Number of families not overcrowded. | Percentage of overcrowding. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 38,490 | 933 | 60,043 | 2,950 | 57,093 | 4.91 |
(In using this Table, a room of less than 50 square feet is not counted as a
room.)
TABLE B— Ward Distribution
| Number of tenancies inspected. | Number of families not overcrowded. | Number of families overcrowded. | Percentage of overcrowding. | Ward. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. The West | 3,726 | 334 | 3,392 | 8.96 |
| 2. Addington | 3,228 | 378 | 2,850 | 11.71 |
| 3. Town Hall | 3,358 | 196 | 3,162 | 5.83 |
| 4. St. George's | 3,557 | 230 | 3,327 | 6.46 |
| 5. Cobourg | 3,427 | 316 | 3,111 | 9.22 |
| 6. Marlborough | 2,992 | 129 | 2,863 | 4.31 |
| 7. North Peckham | 3,477 | 308 | 3,169 | 8.85 |
| 8. Goldsmith | 3,470 | 275 | 3,195 | 7.92 |
| 9. Clifton | 3,879 | 140 | 3,739 | 3.60 |
| 10. Rye Lane | 2,047 | 73 | 1,974 | 3.56 |
| 11. St. Mary's | 2,916 | 69 | 2,847 | 2.36 |
| 12. Nunhead | 3,225 | 123 | 3,102 | 3.81 |
| 13. The Rye | 2,931 | 21 | 2,910 | 0.71 |
| 14. St. Giles' | 3,080 | 104 | 2,976 | 3.37 |
| 15. Lyndhurst | 3,461 | 78 | 3,383 | 2.25 |
| 16. St. John's | 4,057 | 40 | 4,017 | 0.98 |
| 17. Alleyn | 3,228 | 69 | 3,159 | 2.13 |
| 18. Ruskin | 2,202 | 52 | 2,150 | 2.36 |
| 19. The Hamlet | 1,448 | 7 | 1,441 | 0.48 |
| 20. The College | 334 | 8 | 326 | 2.39 |
| The Borough | 60,043 | 2,950 | 57,093 | 4.91 |
In the application of these tables account is only to be taken
of a room which is normally used in the locality either as a living
room or as a bedroom.
The survey was conducted in two stages: the first stage consisting
of a house-to-house visitation of all working-class houses
for the purpose of ascertaining the number of families and of persons
in each family, and the number of rooms occupied by each family
in such dwelling houses.
This enumeration was made in respect of 38,490 structurally
separate dwellings, and revealed the following particulars: —
Number of structurally separate premises visited 38,490
Number of families in occupation of these premises 60,043
Number of families found to be overcrowded irrespective of
the size of the rooms occupied 1,749