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9
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 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 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.

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 46 acres approx.
Total length of roads about 25 miles
Population (1961) census (provisional figure) 21,596
Population (Registrar-General's mid-1962 estimate) 20,640
Number of persons per acre (estimated average) 51
Number of dwelling houses, flats and other residences 6,107
Rateable Value £4,256,000
Product of penny rate, approximately £16,800
General rate for the year 18s. 4d. in the £