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1
Public Health Department,
Town Hall, N.l.
To The Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors
of the Metropolitan Borough of Islington.
I have pleasure in presenting my Thirteenth Annual Report on the health of
the Metropolitan Borough of Islington for the year ended 31st December, 1953.
There are many features of Public Health that can be regarded as satisfactory
and comparing favourably with the best areas in other parts of the Country. There
are other features which are not so satisfactory, but Public Health can never be
stationary and there is room for progress in all fields.
Mention has been made in past Annual Reports over many years of the
congested nature of the Borough This has been confirmed by the publication of
further information by the Registrar General in his County of Lo don Report
giving the results of further analysis of the 1951 Census. Islington is not favoured
with large open spaces, and with an average of 76 2 persons to the acre, it is among
the half-dozen or so most densely populated Boroughs in the County of London,
and there is congestion in every Ward of the Borough. The population figures for
the respective Wards are given on page 10 of the Report, and it will be seen
that no single Ward can serve as a lung for other parts of the Borough and in
every Ward the population density considerably exceeds the average for the County
of London. When it is appreciated that this congestion is taking place in housing
by far the greater part of which is very out-of-date by modern standards, it will be
seen how difficult is the housing problem of the Borough, and how difficult or
impossible it is for sufficient new housing to be constructed which will accommodate
the present population within the confines of the Borough.
The out-of-date character of Islington's houses is shown by the table on page
47 of the Report, where it is mentioned that 59 per cent., nearly 82,000, Islington
households have no bath of their own, and another 20 per cent. share a bath. 53
per cent. of Islington households share even a water closet, and it must be obvious
that high standards of personal hygiene and personal cleanliness cannot be as easy
to maintain in Islington's out-of-date houses as would be the case if the same
families occupied separate accommodation, each family with its own bath, water
closet and water supply, including running hot water.
It says much for the long-continued efforts of the Preventive Health Services,
both in the past and the present, and the standards of mothercraft which are now
general in the Borough in spite of home drawbacks, that the infant mortality rate
should continue at a low level, although the 1953 figure was not quite so favourable
as that of the previous year. There is, however, a gap when the child reaches the
toddler stage when periodic medical examinations and check-ups would help in
improving his health before he enters school.
The continued decrease in the deaths from pulmonary tuberculosis is dramatic
and satisfactory, but unfortunately the numbers of new cases are not decreasing in