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6
In Tottenham sub·district of every 1000, 113 ·were under 5, and 60 above 60
years of age, and so on in the other sub·districts.
It appears that Tottenham Court had the smallest proportion of young and
the largest proportion of old people, whilst Kentish Town and Somers Town,
which have an excess of young, have a small proportion of old ; and so with the
other districts. Consequently there is nothing iu regard to age which will explain
any serious difference in the rate of mortality, seeing that any increase
dependent on an excess of infants would be counterbalanced by the small proportion
of old persons, and vice vend. Neither is there anything in the occupations
or civil conditions of the people inhabiting the several sub·districts, which can,
to any great extent, account for it. No doubt the proportion of poor is greater
in the southern parts of the parish than in the northern, and this circumstance
necessarily occasions a slight difference in the mortality of the two portions, but
is quite insufficient to account for the great difference which actually exists.
One very great advantage possessed·by the people* in the north of the parish is
a greater amount of breathing space, inasmuch as in Kentish Town sub·district
there are only about 23 persons to an acre; whilst in Somers Town and
Tottenham Court sub·districts there are nearly 200 persons to the same area.
Another advantage possessed by the north of the parish, is its superior elevation,
the average elevation of Kentish Town above high·water mark being 110
feet, whilst that of the entire parish is only 80, some part being only 50 feet
above high water. Kentish Town has the advantage also of being on a declivity,
which is very favorable to good drainage; and further has a smaller proportion
of badly drained houses and houses with cesspools.
It must not be supposed from this that the northern part of this parish has
toothing to raise its mortality above what is unavoidable. The same circumstances
which I mentioned in my last annual report still exist. The old Fleet
Ditch and its tributaries in the Gospel Oak Fields are still uncovered, are
monthly receiving additional drainage from newly built houses, and are now
a most pestilential nuisance,—on which I have elsewhere specially reported.
Torriano Avenue and part of Gloucester Place are still without a sewer, and the
drainage from them finds its way into the fields between Camden Crescent and
the Kentish Town Road.
Very much may be done to reduce the mortality in the north of the parish,
and still more in the south. The evils which accompany density of population
may be very much diminished, by improved ventilation of streets and courts,
and still more by Ventilation of the separate rooms occupied by whole families,
by Ventilation of sewers and other improvements of drainage, and by the adoption
of better plans for the disposal of household refuse.
If it were possible to furnish you with statistics derived from smaller subdivisions
of the parish, the differences in the rate of mortality would be more
striking still; but inasmuch as at present I have no means of ascertaining, except
in a few instances, the populations of such smaller divisions, I cannot state
to you with accuracy what the differences are. In two streets, which may each
be regarded as the specimen of a class, the population has been ascertained approximately
by a house to house visitation, and the numbers are as under :—
Deaths in Years Mortality per
Names of Streets. No. of Houses. Population. 1856 and 1857. 1000 per annum
Ashby Street 28 355 20 28
Henry Street 45 1100 46 24
Ashby Street is a street without a sewer, and consequently badly drained.
Each house is let out in separate tenements to different families. Henry Street
is also very crowded, but tolerably drained.