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6
GENERAL.
Shoreditch is a district of irregular shape, of which the two longest
diagonals are approximately one and a half miles. Its boundaries are as
follows:—Hackney, N. & N.E.; Bethnal Green, E.; Stepney, S.E.; City, S.;
Finsbury, W.; Islington, N. & N.W. The average height of the Borough
above sea level is 60 feet.
The subsoil of the Borough is London clay with many pockets of gravel.
Some areas are covered to a depth of three feet with a good quality sandy
gravel on this subsoil.
Refuse material, probably from the City and other adjacent areas, which
has been deposited on this subsoil during the last 100 years or more, now
has a depth of approximately five feet.
The Meteorological Table for London, deduced from observations at
Greenwich under the superintendence of the Astronomer Royal, issued by
the Registrar-General for 1932, shows a rainfall for the year of 628 millimetres.
This figure is 32 millimetres above the average for the thirty-five
years, 1881-1915.
The daily mean number of hours of sunshine during the year in London
was 3.19. This figure was 0.84 hours less than the average daily mean for
the 35 years 1881-1915. March was the only month in which the average was
exceeded. In that month there was a mean of 3.79 hours daily as compared
with an average of 3.40 for March during the 35 years referred to above.
SOCIAL CONDITIONS.
Unemployment has continued to weigh heavily upon the people of this
Borough as is shown in the following tables, for which I have to thank the
Director of Statistics of the Ministry of Labour.
The observations contained in the section of this report dealing with
Nutrition (page 60) are intended to be considered in conjunction with the
figures in this and the following table.