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especially between 1931 and 1951; there are now many more single person households than
there were thirty years ago and fewer large households. This is not necessarily due to smaller
families (the current trend is for family size to increase slightly), but possibly to more of
the larger families splitting into separate households, doubtless owing to the lessening
pressure of living accommodation and change in economic circumstances.
Table A.(v) shows the more important of these housing statistics for each of the metropolitan
boroughs for the years 1951 and 1961. This table, which brings together households
and (structurally separate) dwellings, is perforce limited to dwellings occupied. Overall the
percentage of shared dwellings as opposed to households has declined from 25.9 per cent.
in 1951 to 12.9 per cent. in 1961; boroughs in which the percentage of shared dwellings has
at least halved over the ten years were in the north-west, Fulham, Hampstead, St. Marylebone,
St. Pancras and Westminster; in the north-east, Shoreditch, Stoke Newington, Poplar
and Stepney; in the south-east, Deptford, Greenwich, Woolwich, Camberwell and Southwark
and in the south-west, Wandsworth. The two boroughs with the largest percentage
of shared dwellings in 1961 were Islington (33 per cent.) and Hackney (27 per cent.); both
of these boroughs have a problem of large Victorian type houses now in multiple occupation.
Overall the number of households in occupation on census night has fallen by only
one per cent.; Kensington, Hampstead, Stoke Newington and Wandsworth show the
biggest proportionate increases and St. Pancras, Westminster, Bethnal Green, the City of
London, Deptford, Bermondsey and Southwark the biggest proportionate decreases. There
is more sharing of accommodation north of the river than south; north London is older
than the south and has more old property in multiple occupation, this is especially so in
Islington and Hackney for the reasons referred to earlier. The density of occupation
(persons per room) has not changed very much over the ten years, either overall or in
individual boroughs and there has been no increase in this index figure in any one borough;
with the index of percentage of persons at more than 1½ per room, though the overall figure
shows a proportionate decline of a similar order to the index of persons per room, increases
in this index figure compared with 1951 were recorded in the following boroughs: Hammersmith,
Kensington, Paddington, Islington, Hackney, Stoke Newington, Stepney,
Deptford, Camberwell, Lambeth and Battersea.
As regards housing standards other than spatial, table A.(vi) in the annex shows by
boroughs the proportion of households sharing or entirely without the domestic household
arrangements which are nowadays considered essential. (Similar information was first
obtained in the census of 1951 but the questions then asked were slightly different from
those of 1961, so that exact comparison between the two sets of data is not possible; hence
figures for 1961 only are shown.) The overall proportion of households without exclusive
use of a stove and kitchen sink was 7.1 per cent., the proportion sharing use of a piped
cold water supply within the building was 7.3 per cent. and households entirely without
averaged 0.2 per cent. Access to piped hot water was a new question in 1961 and is a modern
amenity becoming increasingly desirable if not essential [improvement grants under the
Housing (Financial Provisions) Acts, 1958 and 1959 make provision for this and for fixed
baths and indoor water closets]; 4.7 per cent. of households were described as sharing and
36.6 per cent. as entirely without; i.e. of all households in London 58.7 per cent. have
exclusive use of this amenity. The proportion of households sharing a fixed bath was
18.6 per cent. and 30.5 per cent. were entirely without; the extent of sharing was about the
same as in 1951 but the proportion entirely without shows a considerable reduction on the
1951 figure of 44 per cent. Similarly, the figure 30.2 per cent. sharing a water closet shows
a decline from the 1951 figure of 35 per cent.; the figure of 0.7 per cent. entirely without a
water closet refers to households without a water closet within the building or attached to
it, i.e. separated from the dwelling. As with the indices of shared accommodation, the
indices of these shared and absent household arrangements are worse north of the river
than south: Islington has high figures for sharing or being without all the arrangements
shown; Kensington and Paddington have a much higher than average percentage without
exclusive use of stove and sink (flatlet houses); St. Pancras, Finsbury and Stepney have high
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