London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

View report page

Southall-Norwood 1936

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Southall]

This page requires JavaScript

Document C
This document gives the position with regard to dwelling houses owned by the Council.
It includes. 30 of the new houses in Allen by Road which were unoccupied at the time of the survey.
It will be seen from this that 36 are overcrowded (one has since become disused). The
number of "persons" in these overcrowded families is shown on the righthand side of the
document. The number of individuals is shown in the following table:—

Table 5.

Individuals in familyNo. of familiesTotal Individuals
7749
81080
9327
10770
11555
12448
36329

New Houses required to abate overcrowding.
The details for the new housing requirements in order to abate overcrowding are fully
worked out in the report but are not reprinted. The result however is given as follows]:—
The total number of houses required to be built by the local authority would be
15 4-bedroomed houses
22 5-bedroomed houses
16 6-bedroomed houses.
These would leave several dwellings capable of housing small families vacant, but with
the growth of the district 1 think these would soon be absorbed.
It is further stated that the number of empty houses found at the time of the survey
should be deducted but I do not think this should be done for this district. livery district has
a certain number of empty houses, due to the ordinary movements of tenants, and in a growing
district where there is pressure on the accommodation these are probably at a minimum having
regard to the ordinary movements of the population. At the survey 92 empty houses were found
(mostly of the three bedroomed type) but I would suggest that these be disregarded.
The Committee however should also bear one further point in mind before making a final
decision. In an area such as this where there is still rapid expansion there must be of necessity
pressure on the available land. Therefore the tendency must be for overcrowding to increase.
The London boroughs have overcrowding figures greatly in excess of those of Southall and other
outer suburbs, but as the London population decreases and the suburban population increases
the percentage overcrowding in London will tend to go down and the percentage overcrowding
in the suburbs will tend to go up. It must also be borne in mind that private owners may not
wish to rehouse families displaced from other overcrowded dwellings. I would suggest therefore
that the Committee recommends that 50 to 80 large houses (4, 5 or (i bedrooms) be erected by
the local authority for the abatement of overcrowding, and that a few of the smaller type houses
be also erected for such families as cannot be conveniently placed elsewhere.
E. H. R. SMITHARD
Medical Officer of Health.
Appendices
Document A. Draft Form C for the whole district.
Document B. Details of overcrowded houses.
Document C. Form C for Council Houses.
Document D. Graph of house distribution in Southall.
To be presented to the Health Committee at its meeting on the 20th April, 1936.
Action taken on the Report.
The Council later during the year decided to get out plans for the erection of 4, 5 and 0
bedroomed houses on the lines of the Report as modified by Circular 1539 dated May 7th 1936.
84