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
Deptford 1926
Annual report on the health of the Metropolitan Borough of Deptford
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Area and Population.
Acres. Estimated Population.
1,564 115,700
The population of Deptford to the middle of 1926 has been
estimated by the Registrar-General as 115,700. This estimate has
been based on the adjusted 1921 figures, after allowing for the varying
rate of natural increase as evidenced by the births and deaths, and of
migration as indicated from other sources, such as the changes in the
numbers on the Parliamentary Register and the migration returns
from the Board of Trade.
The population for each of the various wards, based on this estimate, and on the estimated population at the revision of ward boundaries in 1925, was as follows:—
| Deptford Park | 9,416 | Hatcham | 11,181 |
| Evelyn | 11,028 | Pepys | 8,442 |
| St. Paul's | 10,961 | St. Catherine's | 7,942 |
| Vale | 11,338 | St. Peter's | 6,952 |
| Clifton | 12,559 | St. John's | 7,451 |
| Canterbury | 10,111 | Town Hall | 8,319 |
As the Borough has an area of 1,564 acres, the density of the
population on this estimate is 74 persons per acre approximately.
Social Conditions.
Chief occupations of the inhabitants : the influence of any particular
occupation on public health.
Unfortunately the golden age of medicine does not go farther back
than the last fifty years. Reports by medical officers of health are of
even more recent date. Thus it is that we have no connected health
history of the ancient and historic Borough of Deptford. When in
A.D. 871, King Aethered, and Aelfred (afterwards King Alfred the
Great) his brother, fought against the army of the Danes at Meretun
it is to be feared that social conditions were of a very primitive
character. In 1513, the founder of the British Navy, established the
Royal Shipbuilding Yard, and this was the beginning of centuries of
naval activities and fame for Deptford in the building and fitting
out of ships. During the four centuries or so of existence of the
Deptford Dockyard, many royal and distinguished personages were
associated with it; visits were made by Edward VI, Queen Elizabeth
and Charles II. The first Secretary of the Admiralty, Samuel Pepys,