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
City of Westminster 1901
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Westminster, City of]
This page requires JavaScript
28
the effect of lowering the general rate, while the excess of males
in the Strand has the opposite effect. In St. George, moreover, the
excess of females is greatest between the ages of 16 and 30, when
mortality is low, while in the Strand the excess of males is greatest
from 35 to 65, when death-rates are much higher.
These facts explain to some extent why the death-rate in one
registration district differs from that in another, but it is evident, on
looking at Table XIV, that in the Strand Registration District there
are other conditions operating, as at every age-period among
"persons" the Strand rate is higher than that for the City, and at
most of the age-periods for " males " and " females " separately the
same may be observed. It is within the knowledge of the Council
Table XIV.— Number of persons per 1,000 living at different age-periods at the Census of 1901 in the City of Westminster, County of London.
| — | Under 5. | 5 | 10 | 15 | 20 | 25 | 35 | 45 | 55 | 65 and upwards. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| County of London | 109.4 | 97.7 | 92.5 | 97.2 | 105.4 | 178.3 | 130.4 | 91.1 | 57.0 | 40.8 |
| City of Westminster | 69.9 | 63.0 | 61.9 | 97.5 | 138.2 | 216.5 | 150.6 | 101.4 | 61.9 | 38.4 |
| Unions :— | ||||||||||
| St. George | 69.3 | 62.2 | 61 .3 | 96.6 | 137.8 | 213.9 | 150.4 | 104.4 | 62.4 | 40.6 |
| Westminster | 77.0 | 69.0 | 64.6 | 102.8 | 145.4 | 218.1 | 154.0 | 96.6 | 55.5 | 37.5 |
| Strand | 63.2 | 60.6 | 61.3 | 93.5 | 128.0 | 214.9 | 161.7 | 111.1 | 69.2 | 36.0 |
that for the last seven years a considerable portion of the area of the
Strand Registration District has been the subject of improvement
schemes, whereby the quality of the population has been gradually
deteriorating (see Table XVI, showing where persons died). The
greater crowding of families into the houses that are left, together
with the withdrawal of persons in comparatively good circumstances
of life, has an important effect in producing a high death-rate, which
is the more obvious in the Strand Ward, which consists almost
entirely of property on the line of the Holborn to Strand street.
This high death-rate will persist for some years; in fact, so long
as a considerable number of persons from this area remain in the
workhouse.*
* The long-continued effect of this is frequently noticed in the Register's returns,
giving deaths of persons who have been inmates of one or other of the City workhouses
for many years, and whose "home" address has long since been swept away in some
improvement scheme. Thus, during the last year the death was chronicled of a person
admitted from an alley now the site of the Law Courts; another had been an inmate
since 1878.