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HEALTH REPORT FOR 1946
The Urban District of Coulsdon and Purley was constituted by an
Order of the Local Government Board, dated the 1st November, 1914,
and came into existence on the 7th April, 1915. It has therefore been
a separate District for just over 31 years.
Situated on the North Downs immediately to the south of Croydon
it is a well favoured "dormitory" suburb with a very considerable part
of its area as yet undeveloped. Thanks to successful Town Planning
Schemes there is comparatively little dense development, most of the
houses being well spaced, while owing to the Abercrombie Scheme there
is a probability that it will continue to possess very extensive open
spaces, the Green Belt forming almost all its Southern and Eastern
boundaries with large tongues of agricultural land or public open spaces
protruding into the developed areas. While this has the advantages of
preserving the appearance of the District and permitting easy access for
residents to comparatively open country, it tends to the segregation of
sections of the community and peculiar problems of local government.
Communications between Selsdon and Farleigh and the remainder of
the District are poor at present and the corporate sense is not as strong
as in older towns with a natural civic and social centre.
The majority of the residents who are employed work in London or
Croydon, travelling to and fro daily. Locally there are no really large
manufacturing or other industries, most of the residents employed in the
District being connected with building and decorating, with the provision
of food and the other wants of residents, or attached to the mental
hospitals. The amount of unemployment, apart from temporary unemployment
pending transfer from the services to industry, etc., was
negligible in the district.
Some improvement in the condition of property in the District was
effected during the year, but owing to shortage of materials and the poor
quality of many which are available the state of most houses is not what
it was before the war.
While comparatively few cases of statutory overcrowding were discovered,
all properties are occupied unless used for other purposes and
very many are undesirably crowded. The Council had, at the end of
1946, a list of some 2,000 applicants for houses, and had pressed forward
as expeditiously as possible with rehousing. Approximately 300 houses
had been requisitioned and fitted to provide accommodation for one or
usually more families, but the number of houses actually constructed or
reconstructed during 1946 was painfully inadequate.
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