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Notifications of infectious diseases included 2,114 cases of scarlet
fever and 492 of diphtheria.
Of 83 cases of enteric fever notified, many were found to have contracted
typhoid from well water on hop pickers farms. For the second
year in succession, the Borough was entirely free from smallpox.
The Report contains the information that at that time there were
38 common lodging houses in the area, providing accommodation for 6,900
persons, and 38 cowhouses housing 777 cows.
Of the 1,210 samples of food analysed 190 (or 15.7 per cent.) were
found to be adulterated, as a result of which 84 prosecutions were taken.
128 samples of milk and 51 of butter were found to be adulterated. A
butcher was fined £40 for exposing for sale on a stall 381-lbs. of tuberculous
beef and dropsical mutton.
It was stated in the Report of the Council for that year that
Rotherhithe Tunnel, constructed at a cost of just under £1,000,000, was
opened to the public on 12th June by H.R.H. the Prince of Wales.
Population.
The Registrar-General's mid-year estimate for 1958 is 96,360. Last
year's estimate was 97,810. 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-tiue population - an increase of over 44 per cent.
London's population is an ageing one. According to the Report of
the Medical Officer of Health of the London County Council for 1957, the
average age in 1901 was 27.7 years, compared with 37.8 years in 1957-
The size of families is increasing very slightly, according to a
report published by H.M. Stationery Office. A hundred years ago the
average family included six children. By 1940 it was reduced to two.
The biggest families are those of unskilled workers, averaging 2.64
children, and the smallest those of clerical workers with 1.49 childron.
The density of population is now 54.56 persons per acre.
During the year there was a natural. increase in population of 657;
that is, there were 657 more births than deaths.
Open Spaces.
Additional open spaces brought into use this year by the London County
Council were the Buxton Street 0Pen Space and the Bethnal Green Gardens
Extension.
There is in the Borough a little over half an acre of parks and open
spaces per 1000 population. A list of the sites is given on page 68.
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