London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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City of Westminster 1937

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Westminster, City of]

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7
Social Conditions.
As stated in previous reports Westminster includes within its
boundaries the residences of the Sovereign and members of His family.
It is the seat of Government of both State and Church, the centre for
the learned professions and the Arts and Sciences. It is the capital City
of the Empire contained within the County of London. It follows that
while there are few local industries in the accepted sense, offices, large
shops, hotels, restaurants, theatres, cinemas and clubs being so conspicuous
a feature of this City, provide in large measure employment for the
occupied population. By far the greater proportion of the occupied
population does not reside in Westminster, but flocks in daily in hundreds
of thousands from the suburbs to places of employment in the City.
Unemployment.
I am indebted to the Manager of the local Ministry of Labour
Employment Exchange for the figures of unemployed persons set out
in the following table:—

Number of Unemployed Persons on the Register at Westminster Employment Exchange during one selected week in each of the 12 months 1937.

Month.Men.Women.Boys.Girls.
January1,7824811120
February1,882539811
March1,76051189
April1,674482155
May1,594473612
June1,63940855
July1,54437463
August1,4374331521
September1,6184211310
October1,807489255
November2,121529149
December2,12150385

Meteorological.
The following note is extracted from a letter appearing in The Times
of 3rd January, 1938, by Mr. W. G. Cochran, of the Rothamsted Experimental
Station, Harpenden, Herts.:—
The outstanding features of the weather during 1937 were the remarkable
incidence of rainfall and the consistent deficiency of sunshine. The
first five months of the year were all wet, the rainfall total at
Rothamsted from January to May being easily the highest for that period
since records began there in 1853. Then followed a succession of relatively