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Section A—Natural and Social
Conditions of the District.
Area (in acres) 3,346
Number of inhabited houses (end of 1947)
according to Rate Books 16,158
Rateable Value at 31st December, 1947 ... £489,872
Sum represented by 1d. rate £2,010
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. The ever increasing
abstraction from the underground water supply of the London Basin
which has been going on in recent years, has almost exhausted these
springs. The ponds and water-ways which they feed, which have
added so much to the amenities of the district, have for long periods
dried up ; an experience unknown not so many years ago.
Situated in Metropolitan Surrey, Carshalton is largely a dormitory
area, most of its residents being employed in London. With the
exception of the southern portion, the district is highly urbanised, the
housing density increasing as one approaches the northern boundary.
Dwellings are mostly of the working class type, the average rateable
value being less than £25.
Mainly developed within the last 20 years, particularly as the
result of the L.C.C. housing estate of St. Helier, the district has a young
population, the average age of its residents being as low as, if not
lower than, any in Surrey.
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