London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Hampstead 1938
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Hampstead Borough]
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105
number of tenants allowed in their properties, but many landlords have
not yet entered into the rent book the permitted number of persons as
is required by Section 62, Housing Act, 1936. Their attention is being
drawn to this. This "unknown" overcrowding will have been caused
principally in two ways, viz. (1) Immigration into the Borough of
families, (2) Families not overcrowded at the 1935 survey may subsequently
have become overcrowded by reason of further children born
into the family and/or children attaining the age of 10 years.
There is a further point to which I wish to draw attention. The
overcrowding is calculated on the assumption that kitchens and living
rooms may be used for sleeping purposes. This is, of course, highly
undesirable and the Ministry of Health's Overcrowding Memorandum
B, dated October, 1935, states "It is relevant to point out that this
standard does not represent any ideal standard of housing, but the
minimum which is, in the view of Parliament, tolerable while at the
same time capable of immediate or early enforcement".
The following Tables show a detailed analysis of the cases of overcrowding:- Table 1.
| No. of families on Register of Overcrowding at date of survey (1935) | 449 | |
| * New cases found since 1935 | 58 | |
| 507 | ||
| No. of families removed since survey | 215 | |
| No. of families overcrowding abated by increase in accommodation or decrease of family | 135 | |
| No. of families removed to L.C.C. or Borough dwellings | 33 | |
| In receipt of licence | 1 | |
| No. of families still on register | 123 | |
| 384 | ||
*These new cases have come to our knowledge through various sources,
including :—
(1) Routine inspection by Sanitary Inspectors of Tenement Houses, etc.,
(2) Applications for rehousing from tenants, (3) Routine visiting by
Health Visitors, etc., (4) Investigation of complaints,