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52
This relatively greater number of small households is also a feature
of Chelsea, Holborn, Kensington, Paddington, St. Marylebone, St.Pancras
and Westminster. These Boroughs which are contiguous form the
north-west area of the County of London.
Of the total 88,119 persons in the private households in the
Borough, 10,852 (12 per cent.) live in one room,l4,8l0 (17 per cent.)
live in two rooms, and 23,649 (27 per cent.) in three rooms. The
remainder live in four or more rooms. The figures for the County as
a whole are 5 per cent., 14 per cent. and 29 per cent. respectively.
Thus again the relative excess of single room occupation is seen.
The average number of persons per room for the Borough as a whole
is 0.8 as compared with 0.83 for the County in 1951, and 0.98 persons
per room in 1931, and 1.05 in 1921. The figure for England and Wales
in 1951 was 0.73.
The second half of Table VII shows the number of households in
shared dwellings, the first part of the Table referring to households
in all (separate and shared) dwellings. As might be expected 72 per
cent. of single person households share a dwelling. This is slightly
higher than the overall figure for London which is 64 per cent. Taking
all households it is found that 56 per cent. share a dwelling compared
with 48 per cent. for the County. This again is a feature common to
those Boroughs with a larger number of small households.
Table IX shows the density of occupation (persons per room) of
the private households. 81.1 per cent. of the private households in
Hampstead live at a density of 1 or less person per room, compared
with 79.2 per cent. for the County as a whole. The figure for
Hampstead is by no means the highest in the County, for instance
Woolwich has a figure of 86 per cent., St. Marylebone 85 per cent. and
Wandsworth and Westminster 84 per cent. The lowest figure is 70 per
cent. for Shoreditch.
It will be noticed that this 8l per cent, of households
represents only 72 per cent. of the population in private households.
The percentage of persons living at more than 2 per room is 2.71 per
cent. compared with a figure of 4.13 per cent. in 1931. The figures
for the County of London are 2.55 per cent. in 1951 and 13.13 per cent.
in 1931.comparing this with the other Metropolitan Boroughs, the
lowest figure is 1.26 per cent. for Wandsworth and the highest
5.22 per cent. for Paddington. The area with the greatest improvement
in this respect since 1931 forms a group of Boroughs centering on
Stepney, an area affected by the pre-war slum clearance programme, the
bombing, and the spreading of commerce from the City with a consequent
retreat of the residential population. About 23 per cent. of the
persons in each Borough lived at more than 2 persons per room in
1931, whereas in 1951 the figure was about 3 per cent.
In the census of 1951 census questions were asked for the first
time regarding certain household amenities, viz. availability of piped
water, cooking stove, kitchen sink, watercloset, and fixed bath.