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5
SOCIAL CONDITIONS
The Metropolitan Borough of Camberwell may be described
as a dormitory borough situated in the south-east part of the
administrative County of London, extending from the Crystal
Palace in the South to South Bermondsey in the North. It is 4 3/4
miles in length and its greatest breadth 2½ miles, and in outline it
resembles the shape of a pear. From a line drawn from the Borough
of Lambeth on the West to the Borough of Deptford on the East,
the contour gradually tapers to the southernmost point of the
Borough at the Crystal Palace.
The highest point of the Borough is at Sydenham Hill in the
extreme South, where the ground rises to 365 feet above Ordnance
Datum.
The number of persons per acre at the Census enumeration was
56, but having regard to the varying densities of population in the
several wards of the Borough this figure is apt to give a false impression
of the social conditions of the area of Camberwell as the number
of persons per acre in the Dulwich area at the last Census enumeration
was stated to be 29, in the Peckham district 61, while in the
North-West and North Camberwell divisions the figures were 88
and 114 respectively.
Population.
At the Decennial Census conducted in April, 1931, the population
of the Borough was 251,294. The population at the middle of
1938 is estimated by the Registrar-General to be 222,400 persons,
2,400 fewer than the estimated population for 1937.
The following Table furnishes information as to the acreage,
population (Census, 1931), the estimated population for 1938, and
the estimated density of population 1938 of the twenty wards of the
Borough.