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112
HOUSING.
The Census of 1931 revealed the fact that Bethnal
Green ranks as the third worst Borough in London in
regard to density of population per acre and per room,
and also for overcrowding. 23:6 per cent, of the population
in the Borough was over-crowded on the basis of
more than 2 persons per room. At the previous Census
in 1921, the percentage was 27 8. In other words,
during a decennium in which there has been more talk
about Housing than ever before, there was a reduction
of only 12 per cent, in the overcrowded population of
the Borough. At the same rate of progress, it will be
another 80 years before overcrowding is abolished. In
order to appreciate the full significance of this conclusion,
it should be remembered that the standard of
overcrowding adopted is a low standard which no person
with a moderate sense of decency would accept. Moreover,
overcrowding is only one phase of the Housing
problem. Were the community to adopt a more reasonable
standard of accommodation, paying regard to
difference of sex and age and to the desirability of
separate rooms for sleeping and living, it is obvious
that the actual degree of overcrowding would be seen
to be enormously greater than that recorded above and
the rate of progress in dealing with it would be realised
as even slower than the snail's pace which I have
calculated.
The following further figures from the 1931 Census
illustrate several serious aspects of the matter. The
relative densities of the population per acre and per
room in each Ward of the Borough and in the Borough
as a whole, and the County of London, are shown in
the following table :—