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9
Births, Marriages and Deaths.
VITAL STATISTICS.
Natural and Social Conditions.
The Metropolitan Borough of Battersea is bounded on the
North by the Thames and on the West, South and East by the
adjoining Boroughs of Wandsworth and Lambeth. It has an area
excluding water of 2,139 acres and a population of 171,900. There
are 24,000 houses, including 27,000 separate tenements in the
Borough. The rateable value is £1,121,737, and a penny rate
yields over £4,642.
Battersea is mainly a residential working-class district of London.
The manufactures carried on are comparatively few, the larger
element of the population being employed outside the Borough.
The density of population varies in different areas of the Borough
being highest in the North and Eastern districts, where the housing
conditions are less satisfactory and overcrowding is more prevalent
than in the Southern area, which, in the main, is inhabited by
the more prosperous and better-housed inhabitants. The chief
occupations of male workers in Battersea are transport work,
building and allied trades, metal, clerks, draughtsmen, etc. Among
female workers the principal employments are personal service,
clerical, typists, dressmaking, embroidery, etc.
According to the Census of 1921 there are 46,000 females over
12 "unoccupied" or "retired" mostly engaged in domestic duties
at home.
The Borough is well provided with open spaces. Battersea
Park in the North with its fine river frontage and Clapham and
Wandsworth Commons in the South, contribute to the healthiness
and amenities of the Borough.
The district is entirely built upon, there being now practically
no land available for the erection of houses—especially for the needs
of the working-classes. The congestion and even serious overcrowding
since the War, have in consequence, especially in the
lower Wards, been very marked.
Population.
The population of Battersea, as estimated by the Registrar
General for the year 1926 is 171,900.