View report page

15
SECTION I.
SOCIAL CONDITIONS AND VITAL STATISTICS.
Croydon is largely a dormitory town, but there is an increasing
number of industries coming into the area with a consequent
increase in the day population. The chief industries are iron
foundries (bell casting) and engineering. The London Terminal
Aerodrome is within the County Borough Boundary.
The population is growing rapidly, a feature which gives
rise to difficulties in estimating vital statistics, as well as those
peculiar to the administrative side of the department.
Croydon is an aggregate of townships, each of which shows
its own characteristics. Norwood is rapidly becoming a tenement
suburb, and with Norbury and Thornton Heath is practically
entirely residential. Bad structural housing conditions are met
with in the central part of the town, particularly in Whitehorse
and Central Wards, though there are individual streets in nearly
every ward in the town in which the standard of house property
is low, especially when compared with the bulk of the residential
areas. Various miscellaneous industrial undertakings are
scattered throughout the Borough. This is a matter of some
moment. There is at present no power to prohibit factories being
placed anywhere in areas which are not scheduled under Town
Planning. As Town Planning deals with immediate and future
development, it does not affect old-established areas, and the
proximity of factories to residential areas has caused complaints
from time to time.
The 1921 Census with a total enumerated population of
190,684, showed that of this number 40,534 lived and worked in
Croydon, and 33,564 lived in the town, but worked elsewhere.
This Census also showed that 5.75 was the average number
of rooms per dwelling and 1.14 the average number of families
in each dwelling, which gives 1.25 rooms per person. In 1921,
4.7% of the population was living more than two persons per
room, a slight increase in density over 1911 (4.3%). The next
census will, probably, show a higher percentage, as the indications
brought to the knowledge of the department show a distinct
tendency towards the conversion of large and medium sized houses
into tenements, containing up to six or more families.