London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Paddington 1902
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Paddington, Metropolitan Borough of]
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housing.
TABLE 4. Percentages of inhabitants of each class of home, and of total population,"overcrowded." Census, 1901.
| In Homes of rooms. | Encircling Boroughs. | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BOROUGH. | London. | Kensington. | Westminster | St. Marylebone. | Hampstead. | Willesden. | |
| 1 | 40.0 | 48.4 | 45.3 | 41.3 | 45.2 | 33.7 | 44.0 |
| 2 | 41.6 | 42.3 | 47.2 | 35.3 | 46.9 | 33.9 | 40.3 |
| 3 | 18.8 | 24.9 | 29.6 | 22.7 | 28.6 | 18.1 | 23.7 |
| 4 | 10.5 | 13.5 | 13.7 | 11.5 | 16.0 | 9.1 | 9.1 |
| less than 5 | 26.7 | 29.6 | 35.5 | 28.5 | 37.9 | 21.6 | 22.9 |
| Percentage of total popul'n. overcrowded. | 13.6 | 13.8 | 14.8 | 13.0 | 21.1 | 6.4 | 11.6 |
The"overcrowding"of inhabitants was highest in Church Ward (47.28 per cent. of
those in homes of less than five rooms and 32.70 per cent. of all inhabitants) and lowest in
Lancaster Gate, East, Ward (13.29 and 2.15 per cent. respectively). Attention is particularly
directed to the proportions in each class of home in Church Ward (see Table 3). Queen's
Park and Harrow Road Wards had on the whole less"overcrowding" than Hyde Park Ward,
a somewhat unexpected discovery.
More information has been applied for as to "housing" in the different Enumeration
Districts. When that has been received, the question of "overcrowding" will be dealt with
more fully.
POPULATION.
The incidence of disease and mortality is so greatly influenced by the proportions in any
population of the two sexes and of the numbers thereof at various ages, that the brief analyses
of these factors given in Tables 5 and 6 will be found of value in considering the prevalence
of infectious illness and the mortality rates, not only in the Borough but in the districts selected
for comparison therewith.
While in the whole Borough there were at the last census 134 females to every 100 males
(of all ages in each case), the proportion in the Registration Sub-Districts varied from an
equality (100 males to 99.53 females) in North-West Paddington to 100:190 in St. John.
Taking the figures for the Wards, it is found that they range from an equality in Oueen's Park
Ward to a ratio of 100:247 in Lancaster Gate, West, Ward. An examination of a more
extended table of proportions, not reproduced here, indicates that the bulk of the disparity in
the latter Ward is due to the large excess of female servants and employees in commercial
houses. This fact conduces to abnormally low rates of sickness and death, as it is usual
for such persons to go to their homes, or to hospitals, when incapacitated from work.
Comparing the Borough with the Selected Districts (Table 6) it is seen that the highest
proportion of females to males was found in Hampstead (159:100), and the lowest in Willesden
(114: 100), and that the proportions in all the districts were above that for the Metropolis as
a whole (112: 100).