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Town Hall,
Euston Road,
London, N.W.1.
July, 1957
To the Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors of the
Metropolitan Borough of Saint Pancras,
Your Worship, Ladies and Gentlemen.
I have pleasure in presenting you with my Annual Report for the year 1956.
This is the thirteenth report which I have written on the health of the borough
of St. Pancras, the 31st report it has been my duty to prepare as a medical
officer of health to a local authority.
The population in the middle of the year, as estimated by the Registrar
General, was 133,100. This compares with a population of 134,500 in the middle
of 1955 and means that the number of residents in St. Pancras has fallen by
1,400 during the year The actual census figure for 1951 was 138,377, which is
5,277 more than the present estimated population. Any assessment, however, of
the duties and responsibilities for the St. Pancras Borough Council, based on a night
time population, is in my opinion fallacious. This fact recently became obvious
in preparing the Council's first preliminary scheme for a smoke control area.
The area is admittedly small and includes University College, which attracts a
number of students from elsewhere. The night time population of the area was
found to be 1,626, to which could be added the patients resident in hospital,
numbering 750. The total number of persons sleeping in the area was therefore
2,376, In addition to this, however, 7 842 persons entered that particular area
to work and 3,700 to study, giving an over -all day population in one small area of
nearly 14,000. So gross a difference between day and night time population does
not apply uniformly throughout the borough, but it does establish the fact that
services and amenities must be provided not only for the 133,100 people who
actually sleep in the borough, but for the many thousands in addition whose work
and study brings them to St Pancras, a central London borough which is a hive
of industry, hospital and university life.
1956 was a rainy year there being recorded 27.28 inches of rain at the
Camden Square meteorological station. This was exceeded in 1946 when we had
29.51 inches and in 1951 when there were 32 58 inches.
The number of deaths increased from 1,441 to 1,528, and the death rate was
11.5 compared with 10 7 in 1955.
On the other hand the births increased from 2,176 to 2,366 and the birth
rate from 16 18 to 17.77.
The total number of deaths in children under one year was 53 as compared
with 50 in the previous year, but in view of the fact that there were 190 more
births the infantile mortality rate has been reduced from 22.98 to 22.4 a figure
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