London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Carshalton 1956
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Carshalton]
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4. Housing Act, 1936. Part IV (Overcrowding).
(a) (I) Number of dwelling houses overcrowded at the end of
the year 63
(2) Number of families dwelling therein 106
(3) Equivalent number of adults dwelling therein 439½
(b) Number of new cases reported during the year 27
(c) (I) Number of cases of overcrowding relieved during the
year 37
(2) Number of persons concerned in such cases 266
(d) Particulars of any cases in which dwelling houses have
again become overcrowded after the local authority
have taken steps for the abatement of overcrowding —
Overcrowding
During the year 27 cases of overcrowding were found and 37 cases
were remedied leaving 63 dwellings with 439½ equivalent adults in occupation
still overcrowded at the year end.
The known position in respect of statutory overcrowding at the beginning and end of the year was as follows:
| Ward | Dwellings overcrowded at 31/12/55 | Dwellings found overcrowded during 1956 | Dwellings de-crowded during 1956 | Dwellings remaining overcrowded at 31/12/56 | Overcrowded cases remedied during 1956 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Formal Action | Informal Action | Total | |||||
| St. Helier North | 24 | 11 | 10 | 25 | 3 | 7 | 10 |
| St. Helier South | 17 | 3 | 10 | 10 | 6 | 4 | 10 |
| St. Helier West | 15 | 8 | 10 | 13 | 4 | 6 | 10 |
| North-East | 7 | — | 3 | 4 | — | 3 | 3 |
| North-West | 3 | — | — | 3 | — | — | — |
| Central | 5 | 2 | 2 | 5 | — | 2 | 2 |
| South-West | — | 1 | — | 1 | — | — | — |
| South-East | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | — | 2 |
| 73 | 27 | 37 | 63 | 15 | 22 | 37 | |
As mentioned in previous reports, these figures are based on the
information which reaches the department in the course of daily work.
For obvious reasons, short of a complete house to house survey, an exact
computation of the extent of overcrowding is not possible since there is no
machinery whereby every new case of overcrowding and every instance of
abatement is reported. As however no new factors have been introduced
affecting the sources of information, a comparison with other years has
some value in assessing the trend of overcrowding.
The new cases coming
to notice in each of the last 10 years and the known instances of overcrowding
at the end of each of those years were as follows:
35