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9
The great majority is made up of the working classes, who go daily
to work in London and return at night to sleep.
The district is one of the City's Dormitories, with a large child and
"working age" population compared with the country generally.
A small amount of local labour is absorbed by the factories situated
in the Northern Ward, but from their position and the industries carried
on they have no appreciable effect on the general health.
According to the last Census only 9.6 per cent. of the householders
employed a domestic servant.
Of the 33,626 occupied males aged 10 years and upwards in 1901,
5,438 were in the building trades; 3,562 were engaged in the conveyance
of men, goods or messages; 1,911 as commercial or business
clerks; 1,709 were engaged in the furniture, fittings, and decorative
trades, and 826 in engineering and machine-making.
What has been said in "West Ham—A Study in Social and
Industrial Problems,'' fairly applies to this district, and on page 55,
"Report—Cost of Living of the Working Classes," will be found a full
description of the housing accommodation.
Of the five Wards Hoe Street generally has the best residential
character, portions of Wood Street and the Northern Wards come next,
while the High Street is intermediate, and is largely studded with the
Warner Flats, leaving the St. James Street and Wood Street areas—
particularly the portions near the railway stations—as the poorest
portions of the district.
The same tendency to migrate from the older and more congested
parts to the outlying districts, is shown here as elsewhere, and may
account for the larger number of empty houses in the St. James Street
district compared with Census year.
The electric trams, which cover a large portion of the district, help
materially in this connection, and the Northern Ward in consequence
is fast losing its semi-rural character.
No Ward in the district is without a fair proportion of good-class
houses, ranging in rateable value from £20 to £50, and shop property
is mainly grouped around the railway stations situated in St. James
Street, Hoe Street, Wood Street and Highams Park.