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This conclusion is supported by the fact that the marriage rate has been on each of
the census years since 1841 below that of London as a whole. The number of marriages
in Rotherhithe to each thousand of population has been in the years 1851, 1861, 1871,
and 1881, 7.07, 5.3, 77, and 8 9 respectively, and in London 11.4, 9.5, 9.7, and 9.06.
No special increase in the number of marriages can therefore be held to explain the rise
in the Rotherhithe birth rate, nor indeed is any different result obtained by an examination
of the Rotherhithe marriage rates between 1871 and 1881, for only once in this decade
did the number of marriages in that district in proportion to each thousand of population
exceed even to a trilling extent the number in 1881. In fact, in the majority of years the
proportion was much smaller than that noted.
It is to be inferred, therefore, that there has not been in recent years in Rotherhithe
indication of return of prosperity of former local industries, but that the place has become
attractive on account of new trades and occupations, and as a convenient and cheap
locality of residence for persons having employment in contiguous parts of London ;
however this may have been there is ground for believing that recent increase of
population may have been largely an increase of married immigrants.
In the year 1881 the death rate of Rotherhithe was 237, this rate being calculated
on the total number of deaths registered in the parish. In the same year the death
rate of London was 21.2. But Rotherhithe has situated within its boundaries the
Workhouse and the Workhouse Infirmary of St. Olave, Southwark, and of the inmates of
these institutions, Rotherhithe, which is part of that Union, contributes only a proportion.
The Rotherhithe death rate should therefore be calculated on the number
of deaths registered in Rotherhithe, exclusive of those of persons not usually resident in
the Parish, but who died in public institutions situated therein, and inclusive of those
Rotherhithe parishioners who died in public institutions beyond the limits of the district.
The death rates should be further corrected, for the purpose of comparison with London,
for the difference between the age and sex distribution of the population of Rotherhithe
and London. The Vestry have supplied us with the information necessary for the former
correction of the years 1885 and 1887.
The amount by which the registered number of deaths must be thus corrected is
nearly the same in each year, and if we correct the deaths registered in 1881 to the same
extent, we obtain a Rotherhithe death rate of 227; this when corrected for the difference
between the age and sex distribution of the London and Rotherhithe population, gives a
corrected death rate for Rotherhithe of 21.8, or 0.6 above that of London.
We hesitate to draw conclusions from the death rate of any recent year, for the
reason that it is necessarily calculated upon an estimated population, and such estimate
is especially liable to error when many years have elapsed since the census was taken, and
when the population, as in Rotherhithe, is in a transitional state. But we may mention
that if the population be estimated on the assumption that the number of persons to each
house is in 1887 the same as in 1881, and if the same number of residents in ships be
added as in 1881, a corrected death rate is obtained for the year 1887 of 20.5, that of
London being 19.6.
On this estimate of population the birth rate in Rotherhithe was in that year 37.5,
and in London 31.7. Further, in that year the proportion of deaths under one year of
age to every thousand births was in Rotherhithe 1737, and in London 157.9.
It should be stated that the population of Rotherhithe in 1888, is estimated locally to
be 44,366, which is considerably in excess of that arrived at on the assumption that the
proportion of persons in each house is the same as in 1881.
The proportion of deaths from special diseases appears to be much the same in
Rotherhithe and London as a whole.
The Parish of Rotherhithe has a ratable value of £194,606. The rates for the year
*A trifling deduction of about 04 might perhaps be made for the number of deaths from drowning, for
which the river and docks in Rotherhithe give special opportunity.