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Section A—Natural and Social
Conditions of the District.
Area (in acres) 3,346
Number of inhabited houses (end of 1937) according
to Rate Books 15,561
Rateable Value at 31st December, 1937 £444,091
Sum represented by 1d. rate £1,802
THE Sanitary District, situated about midway between the
Thames and the North Downs, is roughly rectangular
in shape. It is approximately one mile in width and,
commencing at a datum level of 72 at the northern boundary, it
extends for some five miles in a southerly direction up the slope
of the North Downs to a height of 450 feet above sea level.
The subsoil, which is clay in the northern part, changes to a
sandy gravel as one proceeds southwards, and then merges into
chalk, which covers the southern half of the district.
The River Wandle forms the eastern boundary in the northern
half and is fed by several springs which arise near the centre of the
district at the outcropping of the chalky subsoil. In the dry periods
of recent years some of these springs failed temporarily, but the
greater winter rainfall of the last two years helped to maintain
more normal flows.
Housing development proceeded steadily, 312 new dwellings
being added to the total compared with 511 in the year before.
The increasing tendency to flat development in the London area
is occurring also in this district. The central and northern parts
of the district are practically built up, whilst the southern end is
as yet comparatively undeveloped. The northern part, which
consists largely of the London County Council Estate of St.
Helier, planned at 12 houses to the acre, is inhabited in the main
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