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Section A—Natural and Social
Conditions of the District.
Area (in acres) 3,346
Number of inhabited houses (end of 1953)
according to Rate Books 17,059
Rateable Value at 31st December, 1953 £522,340
Sum represented by Id. rate £2,127
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
part, one head of the river arising from several springs at the outcropping
of the chalk near the centre of the district. Owing to the increasing
abstraction of water from the underground supplies, the flow from
these springs has, for a period of years, become progressively more
irregular with periods of failure. There is now a significant risk following
times of low rainfall of the ornamental ponds and water courses becoming
areas of stagnant mud and of the river pollution becoming
more concentrated with a consequent prejudice to public health.
The district is to a large extent a dormitory area for London.
Except for the southern part, where a considerable area is included in
the Green Belt, it is highly urbanised, the housing density increasing
as one proceeds northwards. If the inviolability of the Green Belt and
the long-established public open spaces is to be respected, the scope
for further development is exhausted except by re-development in
greater density.
A large part of the housing accommodation is occupied by workers
in the lower income groups, the London County Council's Estate
comprising 5,600 dwellings, making a large contribution to this type
of development. The average rateable value per head of population is
among the lowest in Surrey.
The Census of 1951 reveals that the level of housing occupation at
0.80 persons per room was the highest in the county.
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