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7
SECTION 1.
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 Farring
don 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 40 - 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.
Typical Sections are : —
1. Tottenham Court Road - Drift (i.e. including Taplow Gravels) 22½ feet.
London Clay 63½ feet.
2. Grays Inn Made Soil 7 feet.
Grave 9½ feet.
London Clay 40½ feet.
3. Lincoln's Inn 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 rootpaths - 325,000 super yards approx.
Total length of roads about 25 miles.
Population (1951) census 24,806
Population (Registrar-General's mid-1953 estimate) 23,710
Number of persons per acre (estimated average) 59
Number of dwelling houses 6,248
Rateable Value £1,701,442
Product of penny rate, about £6.829
General rate for the year 19s. 0d. in the £