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3rd.—That the present sanitary staff is sufficient.
The Parish of St. Mary, Rotherhithe, is situated in the South-East of the Metropolis
and on the South bank of the Thames, which bounds it on two sides.
The soil consists of made ground, brick earth, alluvial gravel or sand, which is
shown by borings for wells, or cuttings along the lines of sewers to extend to a depth of
from 20 to 35 feet, or more.
The area of the Parish is stated in the last Census Report to include land occupying
579, and water 175 acres, with adjacent tidal water 152 acres.
Until 1870 the Parish of Rotherhithe was conterminous with the registration district
of that name, but in that year it was included in the registration district of St. Olave,
Southwark, of which it now forms a sub-district.
A map of the date 1843, published by the Registrar-General, shows Rotherhithe to
consist at that time almost altogether of a fringe of houses on the banks of the river, the
rest of the district being open fields.
The population some 50 or 60 years ago consisted largely of persons engaged in
retail trade or in handicrafts. In the year 1831 as many as 2,340 men were thus employed,
while 146 were agricultural labourers, and 396 engaged in labour of other sorts, only 25
ranking among "capitalists, bankers, professional, and other educated men."
The large docks which have been constructed led further to the residence in
Rotherhithe of persons of the poorer class, so that in 1861 in every 100 persons of 20 years
of age and over, there were 29.3 engaged in industrial occupations, 0.8 in agricultural,
9.3 described as indefinite and non-productive, while 3.1 and 18.9 were engaged in
professional and commercial pursuits respectively, the remainder, 38.6, consisting of those
who bad domestic occupations.
The character of the population necessarily influenced the condition of dwellinghouses.
More than 50 years ago, the local registrar of the time, reporting on certain
houses let out in tenements, stated that they contained "six or eight rooms occupied by
as many families of the poorest kind, chiefly Irish." The sanitary condition of such
houses will be understood by the statement of this officer, that they were "in a very old
and dilapidated state," and the drainage was defective. Others again were exposed to
the offensive exhalations of an open sewer which received the filth of the whole
neighbourhood.
While the increase of population led to the letting in tenements of many of the
existing houses, new dwellings were erected to meet the wants of single families, mostly
brick houses of two stories in height, amongst which were interspersed those of older
date, many of them timber-built structures. This growth in the earlier part of the
century was not rapid; thus the population only increased by 3,621 inhabitants between
1801 and 1841, or 35.2 per cent. in 40 years; but after the latter year the increase in
the two successive decades was 27 9 and 37.6 per cent, respectively. In the 10 years
ending 1871 the increase was no more than 10.5 per cent., but during the subsequent
10 years rose again to 32.9 per cent.
These figures differ widely from those which the increase of population in London
gives, the London increase being in the 10 years ending 1851, 16.4 per cent., and in the
decades ending 1861, 1871, and 1881, 17.48, 16.23, and 16.16 per cent. respectively. It
is seen therefore that the diminished increase in Rotherhithe in the decade ending 1871
was not shared by London as a whole.
This reduction of rate of increase in Rotherhithe can be explained, firstly, by the
removal from the district of much of the shipping *which formerly frequented that
part of the river, leading to loss of trade and the migration to other localities of persons
engaged therein, and secondly, to the destruction of in houses by the extension of the
East London Railway.
*It is believed locally that the removal of shipping from Rotherhithe was due to the replacement of
wooden ships by iron ships, which were less easily accommodated in the Rotherhithe dock.