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101
Foot Clinics.—The 3 foot clinics in the Division (1 in each borough) have provided
a greatly appreciated service, but in 1 borough the clinic has been unable to cope with
the demand for this service, and the waiting list has continued to grow.
Family Planning.—Authority has been given for the Family Planning Association
to hold a weekly session at one of the maternity and child welfare centres in the
Division.
Division 5, comprising the boroughs of Bethnal Green, Poplar, Stepney and the City
of London.
Dr. G. 0. Mitchell reports :
This Division forms a compact geographical block bounded in the South by the
Thames from the mouth of the River Lea in the East to Temple Station in the West;
the Eastern boundary adjoins the County Borough of West Ham, the Northern
boundary abuts, from East to West, on the metropolitan boroughs of Hackney,
Shoreditch, Finsbury and Holborn, while in the West the Division is bounded by
Holborn above and Westminster below.
The whole Division is considerably battle-scarred, and is liberally scattered with
the open spaces caused by the demolition of buildings, and, in very many cases, of
whole streets ; and a great deal of clearance still remains to be done.
Apart from the City of London, with its large day population and small residual
night population, the Division is almost entirely artisan in character, with industrial
development mixed indiscriminately with residential areas.
Although the Division is compact on the map, certain riverside districts such as
the Isle of Dogs in Poplar and the Wapping and Shadwell districts in Stepney form
almost isolated communities owing to docks and bridges, and present their own special
problems ; and the population of the Division, with its racial and religious mixtures,
and the oriental fringe by the docks, is by no means homogeneous. This variety adds
some welcome local colour, although the glamour of Pennyfields and Limehouse has
now largely disappeared.
The problem of welding these diverse elements into a real divisional whole is a
fascinating one which may take some little time and patience to achieve, and the
development of the Health Service in the East-end of London, although presenting
many complexities, will prove a most interesting and satisfying task.
Division 6, comprising the boroughs of Deptford, Greenwich and Woolwich.
Dr. F. R. Waldron reports :
In the matter of population (approximately 305,000) this is not one of the largest
of the 9 divisions into which London has been divided for the purpose of administering
the services for which the Council has assumed responsibility under the National Health
Service Act, but in size (approximately 14,000 acres), it is very much greater than
most of the others, its extreme boundaries abutting Barking to the North, Chislehurst
to the South, Camberwell to the East and Erith to the West.
The number of inhabited dwellings in the Division is approximately 77,000, and
whilst there are good residential areas on the high ground in the Blackheath, Shooters
Hill and Eltham districts which are open and almost rural in character, there are
congested areas of narrow streets and old houses in Deptford, lower Greenwich and
Woolwich.
The Division is, however, well catered for in the way of parks and open spaces,
the largest being the famous Greenwich Park, Deptford Park, Maryon Park, Eltham
Park, Avory Hill Park, Plumstead Common, Bostall Woods and part of Blackheath.
The industries in the Division include large meat stores, cable and engineering
works, generating stations and wharves and factories along the riverside which
extends along the whole of the northern boundary of the Division, a distance of about
7 miles.