Thus the Medical Officer of Health for Bethnal Green set forth the state of his parish in 1867:—
“The population of Bethnal Green has now nearly reached 120,000, and we have no more house room than heretofore. The consequence is that overcrowding is as great as ever; and although the Public Health Act of 1866 was framed to obviate this great evil, it is practically unworkable, owing mainly to high rents (which in some cases have increased as much as 50 per cent.), dearness of provisions, scarcity of employment, and the imposition of taxes for the first time upon the tenant; and many families who could ordinarily afford to occupy a whole house have been obliged to let lodgings; others who have occupied two rooms have been obliged to put up with one; and where overcrowding has existed, and the law enforced, the people have merely removed to other houses and thus perpetuated the evil which it was the intention of the Legislature to obviate.”
But doing nothing while overcrowding got worse was not likely to make the problem less difficult.
Except, then, in a few parishes overcrowding was permitted to pursue its own course unchecked, to the great benefit of the various “owners,” and to the great misery of great masses of the people, and the evil extended itself year by year and became steadily acuter.
And this, too, after Parliament had placed in the hands of the local authorities large powers specially designed for coping with an evil which was eating into the very vitals of the community.
So rapid was the increase of population that the increase in the number of houses did little to mitigate the over-crowding; nor was the construction of the majority of the houses conducive to the health of those who went to inhabit them.
London ground was being rapidly covered with buildings.
“Many large tracts of our formerly open spaces have been rapidly covered, nay densely packed with buildings.
“The operations of the builder have annihilated acres of garden ground by the hundred.”
“Little garden plots, green spots, open spaces, were being absorbed and swallowed up one after another, and covered with houses….