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Mr. Booth's method of estimating domestic crowding is based on the figures given in the last
census report relating to tenements with less than five rooms, and the number of occupants of such
tenements. The term "overcrowding" has been applied by the Registrar General to cases in which
there arc more than two persons to a room in tenements of one, two, three and four rooms. Mr. Booth's
term "domestic crowding" is employed in a similar sense. The census figures are made use of in the
annual report of the Council's medical officer to determine the percentage of the population in the
different sanitary districts living in tenements of one to four rooms with more than two occupants per
room. St. Luke's and Whitechapel head the list when the districts are submitted to such examination,
the percentage obtained in the case of the former being 44.24, and in that of the latter 43'50.
In the same report the number of persons per house is given for the several sanitary districts. Whitechapel
stands fifth in this respect, with 10'2 persons per house. It is clear therefore that when sanitary
districts are tested in these various ways, Whitechapel always stands prominently forward, and having
regard to the inclusion in the sanitary area of certain outlying districts which deviate markedly from
the prevailing Whitechapel type, and which tend to modify the results obtained, the fact is the more
significant.
Growth of population.—The population of the sanitary area at the last census—73,552—
considerably exceeds that of the same area at the 1881 census, viz., 70,386, but is less than the
corresponding population at the 1871 census, which was 75,499. The increase of population in the last
decade was thus less than the decrease which had taken place in the preceding decade. There have,
however, been several large displacements of population in Whitechapel, such as those caused by
clearances undertaken by the Metropolitan Board of Works and by the London Tilbury and Southend
Railway Company ; and on the other band the old Whitechapel has been to a considerable extent superseded
by lofty blocks of dwellings. Mr. Loane gives in his annual report for 1893 the total population
inhabiting such dwellings as 13,336, the corresponding total in 1889 being 9,429, there was therefore
during four years an increase of over 40 per cent. in the number of persons so housed.
Character of population.—Mr. Charles Booth in his " Labour and Life of the People in London,"
says, "Whitechapel is the dwelling place of the Jews, tailors, bootmakers and tobacco workers, and the
centre of trading both small and large." On dividing the population into sections according to the
character of the employment of heads of families in Whitechapel, Mr. Booth found—
18¼ per cent, belonged to the section headed manufacture of dress.
6½ ,, ,, ,, cigar making and food preparation.
8 „ „ ,, street sellers and general dealers.
5⅓ „ „ ,, small employers.
In Mr. Booth's division of the population into classes, according to means and position of heads of families,
Whitechapel stands in striking contrast to the other East-end districts in respect of the proportion of
the population belonging to the lowest class. Of this " lowest class of occasional labourers, loafers and
semi-criminals" Whitechapel contained, according to Mr. Booth's estimate at the time of his enquiry,
3.32 per cent., a percentage more than twice as great as that in any of the other East-end districts.
In 1893 there were 98 registered common lodging-houses in Whitechapel, and twelve shelters,
indicating the existence of a large nomadio population. Mr. Loane, in his annual report for 1890,
remarks upon the extent to which the district suffers by reason of the common lodging-houses. He
says, "they often serve as halfway houses between places outside our boundary and the Whitechapel
Union Infirmary,'' and in his later reports reference is made to the influence of shelters, and a table
is given showing the number of admission orders into the Whitechapel Infirmary, supplied to lodgers
from the various shelters in the district not subject to the Common Lodging Houses Acts. Unregistered
"furnished apartments" are thickly distributed in some streets, the reputation of which they by no
means tend to improve.
At the last census 17,961 foreigners of all nationalities were enumerated in the Whitechapel
registration district, of these 13,538 were Russians or Russian Poles. The corresponding total at the
previous census was 9,660, and the number of Russians and Russian Poles at the 1881 census was
5,293.
In the Board of Trade report on Immigration, 1894, it is stated that "The total number of the
class with whom we are specially concerned, who arrived in London without through tickets to other
countries, less those subsequently sent away by sanitary agencies, was in 1891 something over 7,000, in
1892 about 3,000, and in 1893 rather below this latter number. These figures then, setting off the
early part of this year against that of 1891, have to be added to those of the census to arrive approximately
at the numbers for the present time."
On the last census night Whitechapel housed 13,538 Russians and Russian Poles as compared
with 26,742 in the whole of London; on the assumption that the new arrivals for settlement during
1891-93 were distributed to Whitechapel in a like proportion, the census figures relating to the
number of such persons in Whitechapel would require to be increased by upwards of 6,000 in order to
make them applicable to the early part of the present year. Mr. Loane writes in his annual report
that he was informed during 1893, of 3,886 immigrants received into the district under the protection
of the committee of the Jewis shelter in Leman-street. "Investigation proved that over 1,926 of
these persons settled in Whitechapel." This estimate is not, however, comparable with the figures of
the Board of Trade report which takes account of emigration after temporary settlement. The number
of newly arrived Russians and Russian Poles in Whitechapel is of special importance in connection with
sanitary administration by reason of the fact that a considerable number of them find employment in
the numerous tailors' and other workshops in the district; tailors' and bootmakers' workshops appear
to be more thickly distributed in Whitechapel than in any other part of London.
Age and sex distribution (1891 census).—The following table shows the proportion of the