View report page

8
a large and increasing percentage of persons of the poorer classes.
The poor in Kensington, however, have one advantage over the
poor in some other parts of the Metropolis, in that they live in
well-built houses obviously intended for occupation by a superior
class of people, miles of streets of such houses being now inhabited
by persons who in the older parts of the Metropolis find shelter in
dwellings that by comparison might be described as squalid. But
rents are high, and high rents, where the poor dwell, mean overcrowding,
which is sure in the long run to increase the death-rate
wherever it exists. That the overcrowding I have long suspected
is going on, may be seen in the section on "Population." This
state of things has already, I fear, led to a greater variation in
the rate of mortality in different sections of the parish than should
rightly prevail. The ultimate effect of the overcrowding, unless a
remedy should be found, and of this I see no prospect, will be to
cause the death-rate of Kensington to approximate more and more
closely to the Metropolitan rate.
The Parish of Kensington is for some local purposes divided
into "Wards." The subjoined table shows the acreage of the
wards, their population, and the number of inhabited houses, etc.,
in 1871 and 1881.
Name ofWard Area in Atatute Acres Inhabited houses. Increase in 10 years Population Increase in 10 years
1871 1881 1871 1881
St. Mary Abbotts 846 4,781 6,573 1792 35,696 48,604 12,908
Holy Trinity Brompton 439 3,224 3,936 712 22,128 26,746 4,618
St. John, Notting hill, and St. James Norland. 905 7,730 9,594 1,864 62,475 87 574 25,099
The increase in the number of " Inhabited houses," is not quite
so large as it appears. The description "inhabited house" on the
rate books is applied to rated premises, and, under the provisions
of the Act for the Quinquennial Valuation of Property, many
properties have been separately rated since 1871 that were rated
together prior to the passing of the Act.
The rateable annual value of property in the wards in 1871, was,
St. Mary Abbotts, £823,992; Holy Trinity, £246,716; and St.
John and St. James, £365,012. In 1881 the returns for the first and
second wards, which cannot now be given separately, show a rateable