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8
Anyone who knows the conditions of lauadry employment is aware
of the facility with which many women drift back to their old
occupation after their marriage. Some women only leave
temporarily for a short period before and after their confinement.
In former years the remark was frequently made that Acton
was a dormitory of London. At the time probably this remark
was true, though until the last census, there was no exact information
upon which an opinion could be based. It was at the Census
of 1921 that occupied persons ir. England and Wales were asked
for the first time to give particulars of their place of work. In
fact, this was probably the first occasion upon which statistics of
workplaces have been obtained and presented by any country in
the world. In and around London masses of population move in
tides of daily ebb and flow. These movements obviously have a
direct bearing upon many difficult problems of traffic, transport
and housing. Statistically considered, morever, the position is
important. The resident population of any locality is no longer
the sole matter of concern to that locality. During the day it may
be peopled by a body of workers numerically exceeding and even
differently composed from its so-called permanent population.
In the large majority of the individual districts in and around
London, the net movement is outward ; the tendency towards a
high degree of concentration of the day population towards the
centre of the region is well marked by the movements recorded
in respect of the Metropolitan Boroughs, in 13 of which the population
is increased during the day. The outstanding example is, of
course, the City itself, which regularly expands and contracts
between an insignificant night population of 13,709, and the more
than thirty times as large number of 416,150 in the day, a number
which takes no account of the large miscellaneous movements
represented by visitors for shopping and other purposes, and by
the traffic of all kinds passing continuously through the city in
transit betwee'i areas on either side.
Acton is a notable exception to most of the districts in
Greater London. It is the only area with a population
oevr 50,000 in the Home Counties outside the Metropolitan
Area where more people come in daily to work
than go out. Whereas 13,346 residents leave the district daily to
follow their usual occupation, 14,575 come in for the same purpose.
In the County of Middlesex there are only four districts jn which
the inward movement exceeds the outward, viz., Greenford, Hayes,
Staines and Uxbridge Rural. With the exception of West Ham,
more persons come in to Acton to work than to any other area in
the Home Counties outside the Metropolitan area, and in West
flam the outward movement far exceeds the inward.
More non-residents work within the area than residents. The
total number of residents employed within the area is 13,501,
compared with 14,575 non-residents. The following table gives
some of the particulars elicited at the Census:—