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REPORT.
The year 1872-3—being that in which the Census for 1871
was published—is one which seems more especially to invite
retrospection; and this is the more essential in a District like
Lewisham, the growth of which has been very rapid.
The population of the Parish of Lewisham was 51.40 per
cent. greater in 1861 than in 1851, and the increase from 1861
to 1871 was 60.14 per cent.
The increase in the number of inhabited houses in the
same periods was 44.78 and 61.46 respectively.
In Penge, however, the increase has been far more rapid,
the population having increased from 1169 in 1851 to 5015 in
1861, or 329 per cent., and to 13,202, or 163.25 per cent. in 1871.
The increase in the number of houses has in Penge been in
much the same proportion, but the population in proportion to the
number of houses has been denser in Penge than in Lewisham
throughout the whole period of both decades.
The rateable value of the Parish of Lewisham has very
nearly doubled between 1861 and 1871, and that of the Hamlet
of Penge more than doubled in the same period; the rateable
value of the District as a whole has also more than doubled in
the same time.
The following table* gives the population and number of
inhabited houses as appears from the Census, and the rateable
value according to the county rate, as adopted by the MetroPolitan
Board of Works for the basis of apportionment of their
charges.
Year.
Population
Inhabited
houses.
No. of
Inhabitants
per house.
ble
value
(County rate )
Parish of
Lewisham.
£
1851
15,064
2,617
5.75
75,000
1861
22,808
3,789
6.02
108,800
1871
36,525
6,118
5.96
215,000
Hamlet of
Penge.
1851
1,169
153
7.64
5,889
1861
5,015
668
7.50
43,800
1871
13,202
1,958
6.23
95,000
The
Lewisham
District.
( 1851
16,233
2,770
5.86
] 1861
27,823
4,457
6.24
152,600
1871 1
49,727
8,074
6.15
310,000
* These figures are extracted from the published Census, from which full