Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Holborn Borough]
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7
SECTION L
General Information and
Statistical Summary.
General.
Holborn, with an area of 405 acres, is the smallest of the Metropolitan Boroughs.
It is about 1¼ miles long, extending from Tottenham Court Road in the West to Farringdon Road in the East, and averages about half a mile in width.
Soil.—Most of the Borough is covered with Taplow Gravel to a depth of between
10 and 20 feet overlaying London Clay which varies in thickness from about 50 - 60 feet
in the North of the Borough to about 80 - 100 feet in the South. In the North East corner
there is a small area of London Clay without gravel cover, and in the extreme South East the
London Clay is covered with brickearth. There is a deposit of alluvium in the valley of
the old Fleet River in the extreme East of the Borough.
1. Tottenham Court Road | Drift (i.e. including Taplow Gravels) | 22½ feet. | |
London Clay | 63½ feet. | ||
2. Grays Inn | Made Soil | 7 feet. | |
Gravel | 9½ feet. | ||
3. Lincoln's Inn | London Clay | 40½ feet. | |
Made Soil | 13 feet. | ||
Gravel | 5 feet. | ||
London Clay | 113 feet. | ||
4. Bernard Street | Made Soil | 10 feet. | |
Sand and Gravel | 11½ feet. | ||
London Clay | 46 feet. |
Altitude.—The altitude varies from 40 feet above Ordnance datum in Farringdon
Road in the East, to 92 feet above Ordnance datum in Torrington Place in the North
West corner. In the South in Lincoln's Inn Fields the figure is 68 feet.
Area of borough highways excluding footpaths - 325,400 super yards approx.
Total length of roads about 25 miles.
Population (1931) census 38,816
Population (Registrar General's mid 1950 estimate) 25,930
Number of persons per acre (estimated average) 64
Rateable Value £1,494,727
Product of penny rate, about £6,108
General rate for the year 16s. 4d. in the £