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33
Birth Control.
In 1931, the Council resolved that they would pay a fee of five shillings in respect of each
married woman referred for birth control advice by a Kensington infant welfare centre to the
North Kensington Women's Welfare Centre (Birth Control Clinic). The council have laid down
rigid conditions controlling their grants. The medical officer of the infant welfare centre must
furnish to the birth control clinic a certificate stating that the patient is a nursing mother and
that further pregnancy would be detrimental to health. The certificate must state the exact
medical or surgical condition which renders further pregnancy harmful. When the certificate
has been endorsed to the effect that the patient has received birth control advice, it is forwarded
to the Town Hall, where it is examined by the appropriate committee, who resolve to make a
grant if the facts are satisfactory. During the year 1932, six applications were received and four
were granted at a total cost to the council of £1.
Travelling Expenses of Women Breast-feeding Infants Admitted to Hospitals.
During the year, three applications were received for payment by the borough council of
travelling expenses to and from hospital of women who were breast-feeding infants admitted as
in-patients to hospitals for treatment. These were granted and the total payments amounted
to £1 3s. lOd.
The Advisory Committee to the Borough Maternity and Child Welfare Committee.
The advisory committee was established in 1920. The committees of the infant welfare
institutions in the borough each nominate yearly two of their members to serve on this committee.
It co-ordinates the work of the nine infant welfare centres, the four day nurseries, and the Baby
clinic and hospital.
Amongst the many activities of this committee during the year was the preparation of a
scheme whereby infants in need of medical attention attending infant welfare centres could be
transferred to the baby clinic for treatment and back again to the welfare centres on recovery.
The scheme has been put into operation and is working satisfactorily.
At the present time, the committee are formulating a scheme for the transfer of post-natal
women attending infant welfare centres to the new gynaecological clinic which has been recently
established by the North Kensington Women's Welfare Centre at No. 12, Telford Road.
The advisory committee is of great value in maintaining efficiency and uniformity in the
work of the various voluntary institutions in the borough.
HOUSING.
DENSITY OF POPULATION IN LONDON, KENSINGTON AND THE VARIOUS
DISTRICTS OF THE BOROUGH AT THE 1931 CENSUS.
On th6 1931 census night (26th-27th April) there were living in Kensington 180,677 persons.
Of these, 6,262 were visitors, whilst 9,478 Kensington residents spent that night outside the
borough. Thus the true population of Kensington in 1931 was 183,893, which represents an
increase of 4,818 over the census figure for 1921.
Kensington is one of the four boroughs in London where the migration element of movement
inward was greater in the last intercensal period than the movement outward. The other three
boroughs are Hampstead, Lewisham and Wandsworth.
It is a matter of considerable importance that Kensington, which is almost a central metropolitan
borough, does not show a decline in population in the same way as the central boroughs,
but is actually one of the four districts, the other three being on the periphery of the county,
where the migration element of movement is inward on balance. Whilst there is room in these
three peripheral boroughs (Hampstead, Lewisham and Wandsworth) for the housing of those
who migrate into them, there is very little open space in Kensington for the housing of new
immigrants.
The proximity of the Royal Borough to the business, social and pleasure centres of the
metropolis is a great attraction. Thus the tendency towards inward migration is likely to be maintained
with the result that the council must continue to give unrelaxing attention to the prevention
of overcrowding in order to avoid the evils arising therefrom.

Densities of population in the metropolitan area vary widely, being at the maximum in such
boroughs as Shoreditch, Southwark and Stepney, where the averages per acre are 147, 151 and 127
respectively. In Woolwich, Lewisham and Wandsworth the figures are 17, 31 and 38 respectively.