London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
View report page
Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Paddington 1906
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Paddington, Metropolitan Borough of]
This page requires JavaScript
64
housing.
The least improvement has taken place in tenements of two rooms where the proportion of
children under 10 is highest.
The cases of overcrowding with which the Department deals numbered 412 last year as
compared with 298 in 1904, the last occasion of an enumeration of the inhabitants of
registered houses. The cases discovered last year comprised 62 on registration, 354 at the
annual cleansing, and 6 on other inspections, as compared with 59, 233 and 6 respectively in
1904. The figures for 1905) cannot be fairly compared with those for last year, but it may be
mentioned that in that year the cases of overcrowding discovered numbered 69 only, viz., 54
on registration, 8 on annual cleansing (there was no enumeration) and 7 on other inspections.
The action taken with regard to last year's cases, &c., is sufficiently indicated by the appended statement:—
Overcrowding.
| • Registration. | Annual Cleansing, | Other Visits. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tenements overcrowded | 62 | 354 | 6 |
| Rooms | 62 | 365 | 7 |
| Occupants, total | 215 | 1,183 | 36 |
| Under 10 | 87 | 529 | 12 |
| Ten and upwards | 128 | 654 | 24 |
| Overcrowding abated— | |||
| By re-arrangement | 22 | 170 | - |
| By voluntary removal | 3 | 53 | - |
| By death | - | 1 | - |
| By conflagration | - | 2 | - |
| Under notice. | 11 | 11 | 6 |
| Cases held over | 151 | ||
| No action taken |
There remained 151 cases to be completed at the close of the year. In 62 of these the
deficiency of cubic space was under 100 cubic feet, and in 34 others between 100 and 200
cubic feet. As regards these, no action, except a warning to the occupants of the tenements,
was thought to be necessary, but the occupants of the remaining .12 tenements will be
obliged to find more adequate accommodation.
Vital Statistics.—The number of inhabitants of the "Registered Streets" was found to
be, in April of last year, 17,759 persons, of whom 5,159 were children under 10 years of age
(29.0 per cent., as compared with 16.7 per cent. for the whole Borough, and 15.9 per cent.
for the "Rest of the Borough.")
The cases of disease notified in those streets numbered 254, and comprised—
Scarlet fever, 177 Diphtheria, 31 Enteric fever, 10
Puerperal fever, 3 Erysipelas, 33
In addition, 290 cases of other forms of infectious illness came to the knowledge of the
Department, viz.:—
Measles, 136 Whooping Cough, 67 Chickenpox, 87
The notified cases represent a morbidity rate of 14.30 per 1,000 persons, as compared with
rates of 7.28 in the whole Borough and 6.33 in the "Rest of the Borough"
The deaths, after full correction, numbered 418, equivalent to a rate of 23.53 per 1,000, or
more than double that for the "Rest of the Borough" (10.88). As the number of "Registered