London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

View report page

Coulsdon and Purley 1948

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Coulsdon]

This page requires JavaScript

HEALTH REPORT FOR 1948
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 32 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 in the past there is comparatively little dense development, most
of the houses being well spaced, while it is hoped that as an outcome of
the Town and Country Planning Act, 1947, it will continue to possess
very extensive open spaces.
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 the inhabitants, or attached to the mental
hospitals. The amount of unemployment, apart from temporary
unemployment pending transfer, is negligible,
AREA AND POPULATION.
The District has an area of 11,142 acres, these being distributed
among the wards as follows:—
Coulsdon East 2,812
Coulsdon West 1,253
Kenley 1,292
Purley 685
Sanderstead 2,311
Selsdon and Farleigh 1,924
Woodcote 865
This is 2,507 acres more than in 1915, owing to revisions of the
boundaries, the last of which was in 1933.
In mid-1948 the Registrar-General estimated that 62,730 persons
were residing in the District, and 62,980 at the end of the year, compared
with 62,440 in 1947.
9