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Section A—Natural and Social
Conditions of the District.
Area (in acres) 3,346
Estimated num
ber of inhabited houses (end of 1961)
according to Rate Books 17,597*
Rateable Value at 31st December, 1961 £874,471
Sum represented by Id. rate £3,580
(*fncludes 256 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 rising from several springs at the outcropping of the
chalk near the centre of the district. The recorded flow of the River
Wandle over the weir in the Grove was more than double that of the year
before. There was therefore, no stagnation during the year in either of
the ponds which form the head waters of this branch of the Wandle.
Most of the workers of the district earn their livelihood in London
and elsewhere, there being little local industry established within the
confines of the area. It is for this reason, largely a dormitory town,
with a considerable proportion of its inhabitants travelling daily to work
in other districts.
Development has, to all intents and purposes, reached its limit in
the horizontal plane, there being virtually no further land except for small
infilling plots available for building. Whilst the limits of the "green belt"
are respected, growth can only be effected by re-development and building
upwards.
Density is largest in the northern part of the area where the L.C.C.
Estate of St. Helier, provides accommodation for a considerable population
of the lower income groups. Largely for this reason, the rateable
value per head of population is the lowest in Metropolitan Surrey.
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