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11
SECTION I.
SOCIAL CONDITIONS, HOSPITAL ACCOMMODATION
AND VITAL STATISTICS.
Croydon is largely a dormitory town, but is becoming increasingly
industrialised. The chief industries are iron foundries (bell
casting), engineering and building. The London Terminal Aerodrome
is within the County Borough boundary.
Croydon is an aggregation of townships, each of which shows
its own characteristics. Bad housing conditions are met with in
various districts, and there are individual streets in nearly every
ward in which the standard of house property is low, when compared
with the average type of residential streets. 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 oldestablished
areas, and the proximity of factories to residential areas
has caused complaints from time to time.
The population is growing rapidly. The increase of population
revealed in the 1931 census was 21.8% on that for 1921. This is
the highest rate of increase for any town having a population of
over 100,000 at the 1921 census.
The 1931 Census gave a total enumerated population of 233,115.
The estimated population middle of 1933 is 239,950. In, the 1931
Census returns 5.59 was the average number of rooms per dwelling
and 1.16 the average number of families in each dwelling, which
gives 1.27 rooms per person. In 1931, 3.35% of the population was
living more than two persons per room, a decrease of nearly 1% on
the 1921 Census. A special report was made by the Medical Officer
of Health during the year, upon the Census figures, in which
comparisons with other towns of similar size were set forth. From
these figures Croydon is by no means badly situated.
Water.
The water supply is drawn from deep wells in the chalk.
These wells are situated at Surrey Street, Stroud Green, Waddon,
Selhurst, and Addington. A portion of the northern side of the
Borough obtains water supplies from the Metropolitan Water
Board.