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Leyton Urban District Counncil.
ANNUAL HEALTH REPORT
FOR 1909,
by
J. FRANCIS TAYLOR, M.R.C.S., D.P.H.,
Medical Officer of Health.
Leyton is classified as one of the 76 great towns of England
and Wales, and is included in Greater London ; although it is just
outside the area of the London County Council. By rail it is only
5 J miles from the City of London, and to this circumstance it
owes its rapid growth of population in recent years ; for it boasts
of no great industries of its own, and it is aptly described
as a dormitory of London. Every morning there is a great exodus
of the male population and of a large proportion of the female
population to the City, the same returning again in the evening.
These toilers in the City are chiefly clerks ; they have no
particular interest in the place in which they sleep, and readily
migrate from one district to another.
My predecessor, Dr. Peskett, who was Medical Officer of
Health for twenty years, pointed out in his Annual Report for
1906 that he had seen the district grow from one with a population
of 38,000 to one with a population of 108,000. The fact that
by far the greater part of this town has risen on ground that until
recent years was covered with fields and market gardens accounts