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17
It is unnecessary to adduce a large amount of statistical evidence in order to show the wide
differences obtaining in the general character of the two populations selected, as these must be
evident to those whose knowledge of London is of the slightest; and a few facts from the recent
census report relating to the population inhabiting tenements of less than five rooms, and the
proportion of domestic servants per family in the two communities will probably be amply sufficient
to give broad indications of the differences in the two populations. The following table (I.) shows
the number of persons occupying tenements of less than five rooms in the two districts and the
manner of such occupation, from the census report of 1901.

It will be seen from the table that over 70 per cent. of the Southwark population were
living in tenements of less than five rooms, while less than 30 per cent. of the Hampstead population
were thus housed, nearly 10 per cent. of the Southwark population were living in one-roomed
tenements, while in Hampstead this proportion was little more than 2 per cent. The contrast
presented by the figures relating to overcrowded tenements is also most marked. Thus some
22 per cent., or nearly one-fourth of the Southwark population, were living in tenements of less
than five rooms, occupied to the extent of more than two persons per room; while in Hampstead
the proportion of the population thus housed was little more than 6 per cent. The proportion of
domestic servants employed in the two communities, as shown by the recent census, affords further
indication of the difference in social condition between the two populations; thus the proportion
per cent. of domestic indoor servants to families or separate occupiers was 81.4 in Hampstead,
compared with 7.8 in Southwark.
The short life tables which follow have been based on the mortality figures for the period
1897-1900, and have been constructed on the modification of Dr. Farr's short method, introduced
by Dr. Hayward, medical officer of health of Haydock, and described by him in the "Journal of
the Royal Statistical Society," vol. lxii., Part III. The chief difficulty in preparing tables of this
kind relating to sanitary areas in London has been the absence of reliable mortality figures at the
required age-periods in which due correction has been made for deaths of persons belonging to
the district occurring in public institutions outside the district, and the deaths of persons not
belonging to the district occurring in public institutions within the district.
Since the year 1896, however, by reason of the opportunities which the Council has afforded
me, I have been able to obtain from the records of the Registrar-General the number of deaths at
each age-period, fully corrected for deaths occurring in institutions in each of the sanitary areas
comprised in the administrative county. It has been the usual practice in recently constructed
life tables to base them on the figures relating to a decennium, but being thus in possession of
reliable mortality figures for the four years 1897-1900, it has been thought preferable to base the
life tables on the data relating to these years rather than on the less reliable data obtainable for
the whole of the decennium 1891-1900.
The following table (II.) shows the mean annual death-rate* at each age-period obtaining in
the two communities selected, for the four years 1897-1900.
* The population of the Southwark infirmary, which is situated in the metropolitan borough of Gamberwell, is not included in the
population of Southwark on which these rates are calculated; on the other hand, the population of Guy's Hospital, containing a large
number of persons not usually resident in Southwark, has not been excluded.
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