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11
INSTITUTIONS.
The workhouses of two large Unions are situated in Fore Street Ward.
The one b?longing to the Strand Union, London, to which is attached
the Strand Union Schools, receives its inmates from the Strand District
alone: its population, therefore, does not enter into our statistics.
The Institution belonging to the Edmonton Board of Guardians receives
a certain proportion of its inmates from this district, and such proportion
is treated as part of our population for statistical purposes. The large bulk
of the inmates, however, are derived from Tottenham, Southgate, Wood
Green, Hornsey, Enfield, Cheshunt (Herts.), and Waltham Abbey (Essex),
which places make up the large Poor-Law Union of Edmonton, and these
inmates, of course, do not enter into our vital statistics. Amongst a total of
forty Guardians, Edmonton District proper has only four representatives.
The Guardians of Edmonton Union have decided to build a new Infirmary
on land adjacent to their present buildings. A portion of a larger scheme has
been started this year. This is the erection of an administrative block, a
porter's lodge, two pavilions for patients, and a nurses' home, at a cost of
£72,724. The plans were laid before our Plans Committee, and approved on
2nd April 1908.
A table shewing the number of inmates of both Institutions, and the
births and deaths that have taken place there, will be found in Table II.
OPEN SPACES.
Pymmes Park (53 acres) was purchased in 1899 for £36,000. A garden
has been laid out after the old English style within one of the walled enclosures
adjoining the old Elizabethan mansion, which last is used for
technical classes by the Middlesex County Council. These classes are to
be held in future in a new building on the site of Brookfield House, adjoining
our Town Hall. The artificial lake provides scope for boating or skating.
As, in course of time, Edmonton becomes more densely populated, Pymmes
Park will be an increasingly valuable factor in the good health of the people.
The Recreation Ground in Church Street (10 acres) was presented to
the Council by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners in December, 1901, and affords
room for the cricket pitches and football grounds of the rising generation.
The Barrowfield Allotments extend to 18 acres, and should enable many
industrious men to grow their own vegetables and thus usefully occupy their
spare time.