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forms a southern boundary, 89 acres of which are within the
Borough.
The Charlton and Maryon Parks provide excellent recreational
facilities in the Charlton area and to those, more recently, has been
added the L.C.C. play centre and Lido with its well-equipped
swimming bath. During the last few years social centres catering
for all shades of cultural and educational tastes have been established
at Charlton House, Kidbrooke House and the Town Hall under the
auspices of the Greenwich Community Council.
The majority of the industries and sources of employment in
the Borough are still to be found in close proximity to the River
Thames which forms the Borough boundary on the north side.
Chief among these are large Cable and Engineering Works, Ship
Repairing Works, Gasworks, Soap and Candle Works, L.T.E.
Generating Station and Tramway Car Repair Depot, The British
Electricity Authority's Works, Glass Bottle Works, Rope Works,
Ship Propelling Works, Merryweather's Works (Fire Engines),
Cement and Stone Works, Asbestos Works, Cold Meat Storage,
Pressed Tool Works, Constructional Engineering Works, Galvanising
and Sheet Metal Works, Brewery, Flour Mills, Aero Parts, Wireless
and Vehicle Parts and Tin Box Manufacturing Works.
The numbers employed in local industries range from 500 to
5,000 in soino of the larger establishments to 100 to 500 in some of
the smaller.
Since 1900 great strides have been made to improve and safeguard
the health of the industrial worker and in the larger factories
where a medical examination is sine qua non to employment the
Welfare Officer has become an essential part of the organisation of
modern industry.
POPULATION
The Registrar General has submitted his estimate of the population
of Greenwich, computed at mid-year 1950. The figure returned
is 89,570 and indicates that the population has increased by 1,890
since last year and by 25,770 since 1945.
This post-war increase is doubtless mainly due to the return
of residents who for various reasons were compelled to leave the
Borough during the war; but in some measure it is also a reflection
of the Housing Schemes carried out by the Borough Council and
the London County Council in the Charlton and Kidbrooke areas.
It is interesting to recall that in 1851 the population of Greenwich
was given as 16,194 and that the last century has seen almost
a six-fold increase.