View report page

7
SECTION A.—STATISTICS AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS.
GENERAL STATISTICS.
Area (in acres) 1,427.8 (exclusive of water); 1,473 (including water).
Resident population: 1921—104,173; 1931—97,620;
estimated mid-1937—92,110.
Number of inhabited houses: 1921—18,507; 1931—17,575.
Number of inhabited houses and flats (end of 1937) according to Rate Books,
19,974.
Number of families or separate occupiers (1931) 27,352.
Rateable value, £3,566,794.
Sum represented by a penny rate, £13,505.
SOCIAL CONDITIONS AND CHIEF INDUSTRIES.
St. Marylebone, in the main, is a residential area, a large proportion of its
inhabitants being of the professional classes. As commercial districts, Oxford
Street, Edgware Road, Baker Street and many of the neighbouring thoroughfares
have become increasingly important during recent years.
The census figures for 1931 show that 6,400 males and 4,000 females are engaged
in commerce and finance, whilst 2,500 males and 3,600 females follow the learned
professions and a further 2,000 males and 600 females are employed in the business
of public administration. Together, these three groups account for 10,900 males
and 8,200 females or 44 per cent. and 30 per cent. respectively of the total males and
femalos engaged in the classified industries. In connection with the professional
callings, it may be noted that 1,021 males and 2,480 females are concerned with
"medicine and care of the sick and infirm."
Personal service (domestic service, hotel and catering work) accounts for 4,400
males and 15,000 females (18 per cent and 54 per cent., respectively). These relatively
large figures are to be expected, having regard to the nature of the better
residential portions of the district and to the fact that the position of the Borough
and proximity of the railway termini from the north and west has given rise to a great
number of hotels and catering establishments. The presence of the railways also
explains, no doubt, the relatively large number of men employed in transport. This
is given as 1,800 or 7 per cent., and includes 500 men working at garages.
Of the persons in the remaining industrial groups, 1,600 men (6 per cent.) are
engaged in building, and mention may be made of the 1,400 males and 3,000 females
(6 per cent, and 11 per cent.) employed in connection with the manufacture of
clothing. This industry, centred in the south-western district of the Borough,
mainly around Great Portland Street, is based on the demand of the West End.
It is almost entirely a high class trade, and is to a large extent carried on in small
workshops, the advent of cheap and convenient power in the form of electricity
having done much to foster its development.
Of interest also is the number of artists, painters and sculptors living in St.
Marylebone, particularly in St. John's Wood. This is given as 238, and as the
home of artists, the district appears to be second only to Chelsea among the London
boroughs.