View report page

9
To the Right Worshipful the Mayor, Aldermen
and Councillors of the City of Westminster.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I beg to present my report on the public health and sanitary conditions
of the City for the year 1949. This is the twenty-fifth annual report
prepared by me and 1950 is the year of the Jubilee of the Metropolitan
Boroughs.
The report as laid down by the Ministry of Health in Circular 2/50
and directed by the City Council follows on the lines of that for 1948
and the other post-war reports. It may, however, be of some interest to
touch on some of the changes observed during the half century.
At the 1891 census the population figure of Westminster was 201,969,
so that unless the next census of 1951 varies much from the Registrar
General's estimate, it would seem that the population will have been
halved in 60 years.
Fifty years ago there were traffic problems, but life ran at a more
leisurely tempo. Looking back the smell of horse traffic was perhaps
more pleasant than the fumes of a traffic block in the Piccadilly of today.
The gaily-coloured buses and the jingling hansoms surging into Trafalgar
Square from the Strand was a cavalcade to be remembered. Both sides
of Long Acre were then lined with the showrooms of the horse carriage
makers. These gave place to the motor car salesrooms, which in turn
were engulfed by the ever expanding Covent Garden fruit trade. There
were still two or three mansions in Piccadilly, and Grosvenor Crescent
presented a solid fa9ade of the homes of the well-to-do. Except for a few
Embassies, neither administration nor commerce had invaded the
beautifully planned streets and squares of Mayfair and Belgravia. Today
few of the stately mansions remain in the occupation of private families.
The war deprived many Londoners of their homes and quite a number
of families from devastated areas outside Westminster are housed in
some of the streets of Belgravia where the City Council has requisitioned
and adapted a number of houses for occupation by three or more households.
Overcrowding in the City fifty years ago was acute and prevalent to
a degree quite startling when compared with conditions today. St. Anne's
Ward with an acreage of 53.4 and population of 11,493 in 1901 had a
density of 215.2. In 1931 with a population of 5,405, the density was
100-1. The great Strand improvement scheme of 1900 out of which
Kingsway and Aldwych emerged, changed an area of dilapidation and
overcrowding to one of order and dignity. The population of the Strand
Ward in 1901 was 11,030; in 1931, it had fallen to 2,052. In Soho the
buildings, mostly of late 17th and early 18th century, were more than
fully occupied by foreign tailors rearing large families and following their
trade in rooms which fulfilled the dual purpose of workshop and dwelling.