View report page

— 8 —
well-ventilated home where the sick might be funded by
well-trained doctors and nurses. Thus the distress and
misery from these scourges might be reduced to a
minimum."
Since those days the population of this area has grown
from 11,098 to 89,000, the number of inhabited houses from
1,080 to 19,822, and the rateable value from £77,000 to £728,410.
NATURAL AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS OF HORNSEY.
General.—The Borough of Hornsey is a residential area well
situated on the Northern Heights. Its freedom from factories
and its considerable elevation above sea level, amounting to
427 feet at the highest point, combine to make it one of the most
desirable of all the towns in the Greater London area. Finsbury
Park, Queen's Wood, Highgate Wood and part of Alexandra Park
are within the Borough; Ken Wood, Hampstead Heath, Waterlow
Park and Cherry Tree Wood adjoin. Permanent open spaces
constitute over 10 per cent. of the total acreage and before long
it is hoped that between 70 and 80 acres in Crouch End will be
retained for all time as playing-fields. There are in addition
14 acres of permanent, and 32 acres of temporary, allotments,
while some 64 acres of the Highgate golf course are situated
within the Borough boundaries.
Population.—The estimated population at the middle of 1925
was 89,064. The Registrar General's estimate was 87,210—an
actual decrease of 481 on the census figures of 1921. It is impossible
that the population of Hornsey could have diminished during
the past five years. A considerable number of new houses has
been built and many houses formerly intended for the occupation
of one family only have been divided into flats. There is, too, a
gradual removal of families from the Holloway and Stoke Newington
areas into Stroud Green and Harringay.
Census Figures.—At the census of 1921 the number of private
families in the Borough was 23,353, with an average of 3'7
persons per family—a decline of 0.5 since 1911. The average
age of males was 32.5 and of females 34.6 years. These were
the highest figures for towns of any size in Middlesex and indicate
that a larger proportion of elderly people is to be found in Hornsey