Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Kensington]
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Notting Barn Farm, which however are being covered slowly
with houses. The Brompton sub-district, in which the builder
has been active of late years, many of the new houses being of
a palatial character, includes within its boundaries the West
London or Brompton Cemetery.
The sub-districts present considerable differences which have
to be borne in mind in any comparison of their vital statistics.
In Brompton the rich and well-to-do form a large proportion
of the population, whilst in the Town sub-district there is a large
and increasing percentage of persons of the poorer classes. The
poor in Kensington, however, possess one advantage over the
poor in some other parts of the Metropolis, in that for the most
part 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 a class of 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 certain, in the long run, to increase the death-rate,
wherever it exists. It has already, I fear, led to a wider range in
the rate of mortality, in different localities, than should rightly
prevail: the ultimate effect of the overcrowding, should it
continue and increase, may well be to cause the death-rate of
Kensington to approximate more and more closely to the
Metropolitan rate.
The subjoined table shows the acreage of the wards, their population, and the number of inhabited houses, etc., in 1871 and 1881.
Name of Ward | Area in Statute Acres. | Inhabited Louses. | Increase in 10 years. | Population | Increase 10 years.* | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1871 | 1881 | 1871 | 1881 | ||||
St. Mary Abbotts | 846 | 4,781 | 6,573 | 1,792 | 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, & St. James Norland. | 905 | 7,730 | 9,594 | 1,864 | 62,475 | 87,574 | 25,099 |
* The increase in the table totals up 42,625, and was ascertained upon the
unrevised figures of the census, showing a parish population of 162,921: the
actual increase was 42,852, the revised figures showing a population of 163,151;
but details are not yet available.