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additional housing accommodation is concerned it has previously been
pointed out that the City is almost a completely built up area, and any
suitable sites which may become available are those already partly or
wholly built over. The cost of such sites for working class dwellings
is usually prohibitive, and they could be acquired only by such mutual
arrangements between the parties concerned as would bridge the gulf
between economic rents based on ordinary site value and the rents
usually applicable to working class dwellings.
Census, 1931.
Certain figures supplied by the Registrar-General as a result of the
1931 Census throw some light on the situation with regard to housing in
Westminster. These figures show an improvement in every case. This
is, of course, partly due to the fall in the total population of the City,
but a share of the improvement may reasonably be ascribed to the
increase in the available accommodation resulting from the Council's
housing schemes, and from the continual efforts made to deal with
families whose housing conditions are unsuitable.
The total acreage of the City of Westminster is given as 2,503 acres,
and the density of population as 51.8 to the acre. This compares favourably
with the previous figures of 56.5 per acre at the previous census,
and 73.1 per acre in 1911. The City of London has a population density
of only 16.2 per acre, but only five other boroughs show a lower density
than Westminster, and these are not Central London Boroughs. The
highest density, 151.7, is found in Southwark, and several East End
boroughs have figures nearly as high. The density for the whole county
is 58.7.
The greatest Ward density is in St. John's and St. Anne's, 108.8 and
100.1 respectively. The lowest figure is 15.1 in Charing Cross, followed
by the Hamlet of Knightsbridge, 18.8, and Strand, 23.6.
There are in Westminster 33,056 private families, comprising a total
of 101,442 persons; 22,536 structurally separate dwellings are occupied
with 132,882 rooms in all. The number of persons per room is 0.76,
as compared with 0.81 in 1921. The figure for the whole county is
0.98. Hampstead, with 0.70, is the only borough in which this figure
is lower than in Westminster. The highest figure is in Shoreditch, 1.45,
which is double the figure for Westminster. This figure is to some extent
affected by the average size of family in the particular borough. The
average size in Westminster is 3.07 persons, only Holborn and the City
of London showing a smaller average. Families are largest in the Eastern
boroughs, Stepney having an average of 3.92.