Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Southwark, The Vestry of the Parish of St. George the Martyr]
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4 Parish of St. George the Martyr, Southwark.
Area.—St. George's, Southwark, covers 2841/3 acres. The roads and streets as
returned to the end of 1897, measure 19 miles, 5 furlongs, 14 poles.
Boundaries.—The parish, in shape somewhat like a hatchet, merges upon 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
elay. 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.—I am indebted to the Medical Officer of the Administrative County for a
copy of the Superintendent Registrar's Summary, giving the numbers resident in the
district on the 29th March, 1896. This summary—given under Table I.—shows also
there were 5,512 inhabited and 657 uninhabited houses, which makes an average of
10 9 persons to a house.
TABLE I.
London Census , 1896.
Name of Registration Sub-District. | Area in Acres. | No. of Schedules. | HOUSES. | POPULATION. | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Inhabited. | Uninhabited. | Males. | Females. | Total. | |||||
Empty. | Occupied in Daytime but not at Night. | Building. | |||||||
Borough Road | 64 | 3,769 | 1,351 | 88 | 79 | 6 | 8,328 | 7,755 | 16,083 |
London Road | 117 | 5,337 | 1,790 | 134 | 85 | 10 | 10,487 | 10,829 | 21,316 |
Kent Road | 103 | 5,243 | 2,371 | 80 | 128 | 47 | 11,426 | 11,453 | 22,879 |
Whole Parish | 284 | 14,349 | 5,512 | 302 | 292 | 63 | 30,241 | 30,037 | 60,278 |
Wards. | |||||||||
St. George the Martyr:— | |||||||||
No. 1—St. Michæl's Ward | ... | 5,765 | 1,895 | 150 | 130 | 10 | 12,604 | 11,589 | 24,193 |
No. 2—St. Paul's ,, | ... | 3,727 | 1,417 | 78 | 61 | 6 | 7,011 | 7,878 | 14,889 |
No. 3—St. George's „ | ... | 4,857 | 2,200 | 74 | 101 | 47 | 10,626 | 10,570 | 21,196 |
Whole Parish | ... | 14,349 | 5,512 | 302 | 292 | 63 | 30,241 | 30,037 | 60,278 |
In 1897 St. George's had a population density of rather over 212 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 for several years
past that about one in every fourteen of your population is born, grows up, lives, works,
and often dies within the four walls of a one-roomed tenement.