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112
PETITION re TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
(Containing Statistics).
To The Honourable the London County Council.
THE PETITION OF THE VESTRY OF THE PARISH OF SAINT
LEONARD, SHOREDITCH, IN THE COUNTY OF LONDON.
Sheweth:
1. That your petitioners are a Vestry under Schedule A of the Metropolis Management
Act, 1855, tor the Parish of St. Leonard, Shoreditch, which contains about 15,350
inhabited houses, and 1,438 workshops, and a population, according to the recent census,
of 124,000, and they are concerned in the technical education of the inhabitants of the
said Parish.
2. That of this population, it appears from the most reliable statistics, that about
42,832 persons are artizans in the following trades in the following numbers:-
Furniture, Woodwork, &c. 16,046
Building Trades 8,369
Machinery and Metals 5,161
Printing 4,646
Sundry Artizans 4,577
Furs and Leather 2,339
Watches, Instruments, &c. 1,523
Silk Weaving 171
42,832
3. That the proportion therefore of artizans in Shoreditch is 35.4 per cent. of the
population, which is the largest percentage in London, being higher by 124 percent. than
the average of the East End districts of the Metropolis, and higher by about 6 per cent.
than Bethnal Green, which contains (after Shoreditch), the largest proportion of artizans
in London. There are, moreover, 13,352 labourers in Shoreditch, and 3,377 shop
assistants, 3,463 persons manufacturing at their own homes, and 11,509 persons engaged
in connection with dress and food, whilst of the lowest class of loafers and unemployed
there are only 2,500 in the whole parish. 23,265 persons earn regular minimum wages
of from 18/- to 21/- weekly, whilst 54,972 have ordinary standard earnings of from 22/to
30/- weekly.
4. That it appears from the above statistics that the inhabitants of Shoreditch are
of a class having special need of technical education, whereas there is little or no provision
made for them, the Finsbury technical schools adjoining the boundary of the