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18
GENERAL
Shoreditch is a district of irregular shape, of which the two longest diameters
measure 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 3 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 5 feet.
The Meteorological Table for London, deduced from observations at Greenwich
under the superintendence of the Astronomer Royal, issued by the Registrar-General
for 1937, shows a rainfall for the year of 731 millimetres. This figure is 22 per cent.
above the average for the thirty-five years, 1881-1915.
The daily mean number of hours of sunshine during the year in London was
3.12. The percentage of the average daily mean for the 30 years 1906-1935, was 79.
SOCIAL CONDITIONS
I have to thank the Director of Statistics of the Ministry of Labour for the
following figures of unemployment. The statistics of unemployment among
Shoreditch residents for 1937 relate to persons aged 16-64, insured under the Unemployment
Insurance Acts (exclusive of persons within the agricultural scheme) who
were resident in Shoreditch and who were recorded as unemployed at a date towards
the end of each quarter. The figures for September and December, 1937, have been
compiled in accordance with the revised procedure for counting the unemployed,
introduced in September, under which persons subsequently found to be in employment
at the date of the count are excluded from the figures; a full explanation of
this change and of its general effects was given in an article on page 379 of the October
issue of the Ministry of Labour Gazette.
Number of persons resident in the Metropolitan Borough of Shoreditch, recorded
as unemployed, at quarterly dates in the years 1928 to 1937:—