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Section A—Natural and Social
Conditions of the District
Area (in acres) 3,346
Estimated number of inhabited houses (end of 1959)
according to Rate Books 17,526*
Rateable Value at 31st December, 1959 £846,248
Sum represented by Id. rate £3,503
(* Includes 257 combined with business premises for rating.)
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. Work had not commenced by the
end of the year on the improvement scheme prepared by the County
Council for improving the flow of the River. It is expected that operations
will start on the Wandsworth/Wimbledon boundary, but in view of the
magnitude of the scheme, it is unlikely to involve this district for some
considerable time. The long dry spell which commenced in May and
continued to October had its inevitable effect during the late summer, when
many of the springs including all those which feed the upper pool failed.
The district has always been mainly residential in character, industrial
development being very limited and of a light nature. Growth within
the confines of the district boundaries can now only take place by the
redevelopment of existing housing sites to a greater density, if one disregards
the few odd individual small plots which can make no significant
contribution to the District's pressing housing needs and the green belt land.
The lower income groups form a large proportion of the local population.
For this reason, and the fact that a large part of the district is
developed to a high housing density, the rateable value per head of population
at the 1st April, 1959 was £14. 4. Od. which compares with £18. 16. 5d.
for the whole of the County and is the lowest in Metropolitan Surrey.
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