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51 [1936
sleep in the same room. Section 2 (1) (6), in conjunction with Tables I and II in
the First Schedule to the Act, fixes, in relation to the number and size of the rooms
in any dwelling house, the maximum number of persons, irrespective of sex, who
may be permitted to sleep in that house at one time. The maximum permitted
number in the case of each dwelling is the number ascertained by reference to
Table I or Table II in the First Schedule, whichever number is the less. These
tables are as follows :—

and two persons extra
for each additional room.
No room under 50 sq. ft. is counted.
For the purpose of determining the number of persons in a family, a child under
1 year of age is not counted and a child between the ages of 1 year and 10 years counts
as ½ a person. Only rooms normally used in the locality for sleeping or living purposes
are counted as rooms, so that sculleries, bathrooms, etc., are not taken into
account in determining the permitted number of persons.
The survey falls into two stages, the first being a preliminary enumeration to
ascertain the number of persons in each family, the number of children under 10
years of age, and the number of rooms occupied. For the purpose of this
enumeration each child under 10 years of age was counted as ½ a person. The enumeration,
which was made in respect of 44,390 structurally separate houses occupied by
89,428 separate families, showed (i) the families which were overcrowded irrespective
of the sizes of the rooms occupied, (ii) the families which were not overcrowded,
and (iii) doubtful cases of overcrowding, i.e., those in which families might be overcrowded
when the sizes as well as the number of the rooms occupied were taken
into consideration. The second stage of the survey consisted of the measurement
of the floor area of all the rooms in the houses in which a doubtful case or doubtful
cases of overcrowding had been disclosed by the preliminary enumeration, with a
view to determining definitely whether the families were or were not overcrowded
on the standard laid down in Table II of the First Schedule to the Act. In the
second stage of the Survey, the ages of children under 10 years of age were recorded
and particulars of the numbers of lodgers living with families were obtained. Room
measurements were taken in some 12,886 houses.
The result of the survey is shown in the tabulated form on pages 54 and 55, from
which figures it will be seen that the total separately occupied dwellings in the
Borough number 89,428. Of these, 6,726 were overcrowded according to the standard
laid down in the First Schedule of the Housing Act, 1935. In addition, there were
31 families with insufficient accommodation to secure proper sex separation and for
that reason were overcrowded, bringing the total up to 6,757 families, or 7-5 per
cent, of the total number of families,