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4
Parish of St. George the Martyr, Southwark.
Boundaries.—The parish, in shape somewhat like a hatchet, is surrounded by no
less than six other Sanitary Districts. It is bounded on the north by St. Saviour and
St. Olave, on the west by Lambeth, on the south by Newington and Camberwell,
and on the east by Bermondsey.
Geological Formation.—The sub-soil of Southwark consists of porous "made"
earth, sand, and gravel, of a depth of fifteen to twenty-five feet, overlying the London
clay. Saline springs rise at times to the surface, and in certain excavated parts of
the parish—e.g., Theatre and Music Hall, necessitate the constant use of pumps.
Elevation.—The district is low-lying and flat, and is situate at an average of half a
foot below the Trinity high water mark of the Thames, as against a mean elevation
for London of 47.5 feet above the same mark.
Houses.—At the Census of 1891 there were 6,946 inhabited houses, 732
uninhabited, and 44 building, containing an average of 8.5 persons to a house.
According to the 1881 Census, the inhabited houses numbered 6,761—i.e., 185 less
than in 1891.
The decrease in the number of inhabited houses in the London Road Sub-district
may be traced to two chief causes—first, the exodus of population going on steadily
from all the central metropolitan districts, which is materially aided by the increasing
facilities for cheap transit ; secondly, the demolition and closing of many
insanitary houses.
Table I.
Sub-District.
Area in
Acres.
HOUSES.
Inhabited, Uninhabited,
Building, 1881.
Inhabited, Uninhabited,
Building, 1891.
Borough Road
64
1,880
108
4
1,986
2 94
12
London Road
117
2,243
118
1
1,963
128
18
Kent Road
103
2,638
120
11
2,997
310
14
Whole Parish
284
6,761
346
16
6,946
732
44
St. George's has a population density of 211 to the acre—that is to say, about
four times that of London, and four hundred times that of the United Kingdom.
Its number of tenements is almost exactly double that of its inhabited houses. Of
the tenement occupiers, one-third live in two rooms, and another third in a single
room. There is no reason to alter the statement advanced in last year's report that
about 1 in every 14 of your population is born, grows up, drinks, eats, sleeps, works,
and often dies within the four walls of a one-roomed tenement.
Population.—The number of inhabitants of the whole parish and of each
sub-district has not increased in the same proportion as in the rest of London. This
fact, which was fully dealt with in my report of 1893, holds good for 1894 and 1895.
Births and Birth-Rate.
Table II. gives the birth-rate per 1,000 per annum for the years 1893, 1894, and
1895. in each sub-district of the parish, in London, and in the thirty-three large
English towns.