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1
REPORT.
The Borough of Paddington comprises an area of 1,356 statute acres, including 20 of
inland water-ways (the Grand Junction and Regent's Canals), parts of Hyde Park and
Kensington Gardens (68 acres), the Recreation Ground (27 acres'), the disused Church Yard
of St. Mary's Paddington Green (5 acres), and Paddington Green (1½ acres). The Borough is
co-terminous with the Registration District "No. 1, Paddington," comprising three SubDistricts,
viz., "North,'' "Central," and "South." For municipal purposes the Borough is
divided into eight Wards. The grouping of the Wards in the Registration Sub-Districts is set
out below :
Registration Sub-Districts. Wards.
North Paddington
Queen's Park.
Harrow Road.
Maida Vale.
Central Paddington
Westbourne.
Church.
South Paddington
Lancaster Gate, West.
Lancaster Gate, East.
Hyde Park.
The Borough is situated on the southern side of the range of low hills which culminate in the
Hampstead Heights, the slope being (generally) towards the south and west. The subsoil is
principally clay, but in places, more particularly in the neighbourhood of the Bayswater Road,
pockets of gravel exist, or did exist. In the central parts of the Borough many depressions were
filled up years ago with slop and refuse of all descriptions. In the western parts of the
Borough the subsoil water lies at a very few feet below the surface of the ground. There are at
least two, and possibly more, subterranean watercourses, one of which, running parallel with the
Edgware Road, close to the western side thereof, has been found on several occasions,
in the course of works of excavation to trace the causes of dampness in cellars. The second, the
better known, is the Ranelagh, which now forms the Ranelagh Sewer, one of the main sewers
of the Metropolis.
POPULATION.
At the census of 1901, which took place some five months after the formation of the Borough
under the provisions of the London Government Act, 1899, the population of the Borough was
found to number 143,976 persons, comprising 61,626 males and 82,350 females. Had the old
Parish of Paddington remained unchanged in its boundaries, the population at that census would
have been 127,328 persons (53,305 males and 74,023 females), so that the changes in the
boundaries resulted in a nett gain of 16,648 persons (7,957 males and 8,327 females).
During the ten years April, 1901, to April, 1911, the natural increment of the population of
the Borough, being the excess of registered births over the corrected deaths, amounted to 11,959
persons, or an average of 1,196 per annum. The increment during the first five years amounted
to 6,421 persons (642 per annum), and during the second, to 5,538 persons (554 per annum).
With such rates of increment on record it was thought that an estimate of 152,876 persons as
the population of the Borough at the census of 1911 might fairly be regarded as a conservative
forecast. The final total obtained at that census was, however, 142,551, showing a decrease of
1,425 persons, instead of an anticipated increase of something like 9,000. Figures were
submitted in the Report for 1911 (page 1) to show that the actual loss of population during
the ten years was probably upwards of 16,000 persons.
B