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131
Bad cases of overcrowding are decidedly less
common than they were some years ago. The
lowest wage earners suffer the greatest hardship
in this respect, especially those with large families
of young children.
The population of Fulham at the 1931 Census
was 150,928, which was 7,010 less than the figure
for 1921, but the number of private families or
separate occupiers was 43,153, which was 2,717
families more than at the previous census. The
families are of course smaller. The number of
private families per dwelling was 1.64 in 1931
compared with 1.56 in 1921. The number of
persons per room has decreased. The Registrar
General's standard for overcrowding is that a
house is overcrowded if there are more than two
persons per room but this standard, although
useful as a general guide to the conditions, cannot
be enforced in law. The legal standards are
based on the number of persons for a certain
cubic air space.
The Council's officers are dealing with cases of
overcrowding in so far as the available housing
accommodation, the means of the overcrowded
families and the existing legal powers will permit.
Underground Rooms. The unsatisfactory state
of the law regarding underground rooms hampers
progress in dealing with them. In the opinion of
many medical officers, including myself, if a room
is unfit for sleeping purposes it is also, from the
health point of view, unfit for living purposes.
There is a considerable number of underground
rooms in Fulham but they have in the large majority
of cases fairly large areas and even those with less satisfactory
areas, still comply with the law. With a few
exceptions the underground rooms in Fulham which
do not comply with the legal standard have been
closed, either voluntarily by the owners on the