London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Woolwich 1935
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Woolwich]
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69
At the end of the year 8 houses were in course of erection on the Page Estate
and 142 on the Middle Park Estate; the total number of occupied dwellings on
these two estates at the end of the year was 3,538.
Overcrowding Survey.—It became necessary, during the year, to carry out,
in accordance with the provisions of the Housing Act, 1935, a systematic survey
of the houses in the Borough, in order to ascertain what dwellings were overcrowded
according to a standard defined in the Act. The standard is complex:
it includes a measure of capacity based on the number, size and user of rooms;
it regards persons of different ages in terms of equivalent persons, and it provides
that the accommodation must be such that no two persons over 10 years of age
of opposite sexes, not living as husband and wife, must sleep in the same room.
The following Tables A and B, taken from the first Schedule of the Act, define the standards of capacity:—
TABLE A.
| Where a house consists of— | The permitted number of persons is— |
|---|---|
| (a) One room | 2 |
| (b) Two rooms | 3 |
| (c) Three rooms | 5 |
| (d) Four rooms | 7½ |
| (c) Five rooms or more | 10 with an additional 2 in respect of each room in excess of five. |
In the application of these tables account is only to be taken of rooms which
are normally used in the locality either as living rooms or bedrooms, and a room of
less than 50 square feet is to be ignored. Rooms occupied by a sub-tenant constitute
a separate dwelling; children under one year are not counted and children
between 1 and 10 years count as half a person.
TABLE B.
| Where a room in a house has a floor area of— | The permitted number of persons is— |
|---|---|
| (a) 110 square feet or more | 2 |
| (b) 90 square feet or more, but less than 110 | 1½ |
| (c) 70 square feet or more, but less than 90 | 1 |
| ½ | |
| (e) Under 50 square feet | Nil. |