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following are Paddington (7.24), Kensington (6.80), Stoke Newington
(6.74), Islington (6.41) and St. Pancras (6.34), an order similar to
that of 1921, but on a slightly lower scale. At the other extreme
stands the City with a minimum of 3.52 rooms, followed by Holborn
(4.15) and the inner Eastern Boroughs of Bethnal Green (4.32),
Stepney (4.53), Finsbury (4.59), Bermondsey (4.73), Southwark (4.73)
and Shoreditch (4.78). Housing pressure as measured by the proportion
of families to dwellings is greatest in St. Pancras, where there
are on the average 2.28 families to each dwelling, and where only
18.4 per cent. of the families are in undivided occupation of separate
dwellings : Islington and Paddington are the only other Boroughs with
averages of more than two families per dwelling. In these Boroughs,
however, houses are larger and the families smaller than in the county
generally, the combination of these factors improving their relative positions
as expressed by the persons per room ratio. In contrast with these
high rates of family occupation is the City, with its comparatively small
dwellings occupied by 1.06 families on average, followed by the outer
Boroughs of Lewisham (1.26), Woolwich (1.28) and Wandsworth (1.33).
Even in these Boroughs (not including the City) families occupying
separate dwellings to themselves number only 58 per cent. of the
whole.
The average size of families in the several Boroughs varies from
3.92 to 2.94 persons. The largest are found in the poorer Eastern
Boroughs, viz., Stepney (3.92), Poplar (3.85), Bethnal Green (3.79),
Bermondsey and Shoreditch (3.77 each); the smallest in Holborn (2.94),
the City (3.04), Westminster (3.07) and Paddington (3.08). In the case
of each Borough, without exception, the family is smaller than it
was 10 years ago.
In the matter of room density, it will be observed that the County
average of 0.98 persons per room is a mean of variations in individual
Boroughs varying within the wide limits of 0.70 and 1.45. The
East End Boroughs generally exhibit the worst conditions, Shoreditch
being the most unfavourably placed with the highest average of 1.45
persons per room, followed by Finsbury (1.42), Bethnal Green (1.35),
Stepney (1.33) Southwark (1.28), Bermondsey and Poplar (1.25 each).
In the Old Street Ward, City Road East Ward and Pentonville Ward
of Finsbury the averages rise to as much as 1.70, 1.62 and 1.60
persons per room respectively. The Boroughs showing the most
favourable densities are Hampstead (0.70), Westminster (0.76), Chelsea
and Wandsworth (0.79 each) and Kensington (0.80). It is worthy of
note that, compared with 1911, the density figure shows an improvement
in every Borough with the exception of Lewisham. But, as
explained for the County as a whole, the change is largely a consequence
of the reductions in the size of families, and is incomplete as
a general index to housing conditions.
Overcrowding has been reduced in all Borough areas without exception,
and in some, particularly in the worst districts, the improvement
shown for the decennium has been considerable, though it is
feared that the Inner Eastern Boroughs must still rank amongst the