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westward. Another stream, the Tyburn, originated at the Conduit
Spring in Fitzjohn's Avenue and ran down through Belsize, close to
where St. Peter's Church now stands, and then on to Marylebone
Lane which was built over it. It next went south and west, divided
into two, and reached the Thames near Westminster Abbey.
On the eastern side of Hampstead was the Fleet, variously
described as rising in the Yale of Health and Flask Walk. It followed
the course of Willow Road, ran across South End Green, wandered down
Camden Town to join a larger tributary rising in the Highgate Ponds.
It is interesting to note that recently, in the course of some works of the
Council, indications of the old course of the Fleet have been brought
to light; for the line of the stream was indicated where it has been
built in and converted into a sewer in its own bed. This was found in
the gardens of Willow Cottages, and also when excavations were made
to lay the foundations of the flats at South End Green. In this latte
case the ancient bed of the Fleet was cut across.
Social conditions, including the chief occupations of the inhabitants,
and the influence of any particular occupation on public health.
Hampstead is mainly a residential district, and is less densely
populated than the Administrative County as a whole, the number
of persons per acre being 38 and 60 respectively. The density, however,
varies very much throughout the Borough, being very sparse in
some places and very crowded in others; whilst in a considerable
portion, which includes the Heath, there is no population at all. In
the wide spaces of the Heath which come within the Borough of
Hampstead many large old houses still stand ; and there are two distinct
villages remaining, surrounded by the Heath, being finally limited
in their growth by it. These factors cause a variation in the density
of the population, and though in the Borough as a whole there are no
more than 38 persons to the acre, yet in the two poorer districts, which
flank Hampstead east and west, the population is considerably higher.
Thus the Ivilburn Ward has 84 to the acre, and in a certain portion
of this Ward known as the Netherwood Street Area, comprising
Netherwood, Kelson and Linstead Streets and Palmerston Road the
density at a Census taken in 1919 was found to be no less than 238
persons to the acre. With the exception of this area, the figures are
calculated on the returns of the Census of 1921, but, as I have had
occasion to say on former occasions, I cannot regard those Census
returns as being accurate so far as Hampstead is concerned. I have
never known the Borough so crowded as it is to-day, and yet the