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last year it is not possible to determine correctly. But it is certain that
this tendency to overcrowding is increasing year by year, and it cannot
fail to tax to the uttermost the sanitary powers of the Vestry. It cannot
be doubted that the considerable improvements in drainage, and the
condition of the dwellings, which have been carried out during the last
seven years, have materially mitigated the evil, by fitting the district for
the accommodation of the larger increase of population. It must also
be borne in mind that many houses of the worst description have given
way to new buildings, fitted to receive a larger number of inhabitants,
with greater comfort and security to health. Amongst the most
remarkable examples of this kind, is the erection of Harman Street in
the place of Queen's Head Gardens. Another is the erection of
Mr. Waterlow's Model Lodging Houses, on the site of Mark Street, and
Matthew Street. These buildings are admirably constructed to house
the greatest number of people on a small area. They supply a most
pressing want of the community, which compels a large number of working
people to live in proximity to the great centres of trade and manufacture.
They entail however, the disadvantage of overshadowing the
surrounding streets, and of obstructing the free circulation of air. So
inexorable is the law that governs the relation of population to space,
that we cannot avail ourselves with safety beyond very narrow limits of the
privilege of compensating for the deficiency of superficies, by running
houses storey by storey upwards into the air.
Waterlow's buildings consist of four blocks, each containing 20
households. Allowing 5 persons to each, we should have 400 inhabitants.
These occupy a superficial area of a third of an acre. This is a density
of population of 1,200 to an acre. Throughout the parish the density
is about 200 to an acre. The difference is very striking, even after
making full allowance for street-space and open places. To what
extent this system of close-packing can be carried without detriment to
health, or encountering other limitations, is a problem yet to be solved.
Table IV. exhibits the births and deaths of each sub-district in
connexion with the population, and the proportion of deaths to births.
This proportion it will be seen, varies from 53 per cent. in Haggerstone
East, to 73 per cent. in Hoxton New Town. The large proportion of