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Fifty Years Ago.
The Annual Report of the Medical Officer of Health for the year 1907
contains the following information:
The estimated population was 308,923, but the Medical Officer of Health
was of the opinion that the population was, in fact, somewhat higher.
The birth-rate was reported to be 33.1, the lowest then on record but
still the highest in London.
The death rate was also stated to be the lowest on record, and the
infant mortality rate was 119 per thousand births. Among the causes of
death reported were Scarlet Fever 83, Measles 155, Diphtheria 93, Whooping
Cough 102, Diarrhoea 139, Enteritis 129, Pulmonary Tuberculosis 482,
Premature Birth 156, Alcoholism 48, Appendicitis 11.
Notifications of infectious diseases included Scarlet Fever 2,847,
Diphtheria 568, Enteric Fever 107, Typhus 1.
The Medical Officer of Health reported that 69 homeless persons died,
and in the annual report of the Clerk to the Whitechapel Guardians it was
stated that seven persons died from starvation in the Whitechapel district.
They were wanderers who made no application to the guardians for relief,
and were unknown until they were brought in by the police in a collapsed
condition. In the East End 10,000 people slept every night in common
lodging houses and shelters.
The report of the Council's Borough Engineer and Surveyor included
the information that the whole of the Public Health Department office
building was thoroughly cleansed, redecorated and repaired both internally
and externally at a cost of £124.8s.7d.
Population.
The Registrar-General's mid-year estimate for 1957 is 97,810. Last
year's estimate was 98,160. The census taken in 1951 showed the population
to be 98,581. The section of the Registrar-General's Report on the 1951
Census dealing with the usual residence and workplace of the population
revealed that the Borough's daytime population was 141,400, compared
with 98,581 night-time population, an increase of over 44 per cent.
The density of population is now 55.38 persons per acre.
During the year there was a natural increase in population of 639,
i.e., there were 639 more births than deaths.
Open Spaces.
There is in the Borough a little over half-an-acre of parks and open
spaces per thousand population. A list of the sites is given on Page 69.
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