London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

View report page

Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London

Clerkenwell 1898

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Clerkenwell, St. James and St. John]

This page requires JavaScript

Table: The annual average number of births for the past 10 years is 2163, the births and deaths being distributed throughout the parish as follows

The annual average number of births for the past 10 years is 2163, the births and deaths being distributed throughout the parish as follows

district.deaths.births.
St. James216487
Amwell4991,037
Goswell218548
9332,072

Table: Table of Births and Deaths for the past 10 years.

Table of Births and Deaths for the past 10 years.

years.deaths.births.
18891,0332,277
18901,1842,204
18911,1712,222
18921,1252,175
18931,1832,106
18948072,180
18951,0382,083
18969232,223
18979662,092
18989332,072

Text

Copy text to clipboard

These 933 intra-parochial deaths with a population of
66,202 give a death-rate of 14 per 1,000. Last year it was 14.5.
While it gives me pleasure to report a gradual fall in the
intra-parochial death-rate, as frequently pointed, out from our
peculiar circumstances, it is of no real value for purposes of
comparison with other districts, or assistance in forming correct
conclusions as to our sanitary condition.
Besides the 933 deaths occurring in the district, 493 Clerkenwell
residents died in various hospitals and institutions outside
the district, and these being added give a total number of 1,426
deaths, yielding a total death-rate of 21.5 per 1,000. This, our
true death-rate, though considerably higher than the rate for
Registration London, which is only 18.3 per 1,000, compares
not unfavourably with that of our immediate neighbours in