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26
The lower London tertiaries are found throughout practically
the whole of the remaining portion of Charlton, extending westward
along the southern delimiting line of the chalk and gravel
passing along the southern boundary of the Borough, across
Blackheath to Blackheath Village and Lee Green, thence roughly
from Weigall Road to the eastern end of Blackheath Park, thence
to Charlton Park Lane and along same to the Borough boundary.
London clay is found throughout the remainder of Kidbrooke.
The accompanying sketch map will assist in elucidating the
various delimited areas.
The altitude throughout the whole of the Borough varies from
a few feet below high water mark on the marshes up to 249 feet
above sea-level on the Shooters Hill Road just at the Borough
boundary.
Vacant land on the marshes, consisting chiefly of alluvial
deposits, is quite unsuitable at present for the erection of dwelling
houses as its level is below that of the River at high water. This
fact complicates the drainage problems of the district and the
houses already built there are subject to flooding at times of heavy
storms. The difficulty has been overcome in some instances in the
past by the filling up of the basement rooms but even this treatment
is most unsatisfactory. Due to special drainage systems and
the introduction of concrete rafts considerable factory development
has taken place in this area in recent years.
POPULATION
General—The Registrar General has submitted his estimate
of the population of Greenwich, computed at mid-year 1964, upon
which the statistics of this Report have been based. The figure
returned is 83,630, indicating a decrease in the population of 130
since last year and a fall of 1,916 since the 1961 Census. However,
the current figure shows an advance of 19,830 over that for 1945.
Natural Increase—The natural increase for the year, i.e. excess
of births over deaths, was 555 compared with 448 for 1963.
Expectation of Life—From 1841, when the expectation of life
at birth was 40 years for males and 42 for females, there was a
gradual but persistent rise in both these figures until 1954, but