The Medical Officer of Health for the Borough of Finsbury, utilising the figures for that Borough, deduced some most instructive conclusions as to the effect of the one-room and two-room tenements upon the death-rates.
Forty-six per cent. of the population lived in such tenements; the death-rate in one-room tenements was 38·9 per 1,000; the death-rate in two-room tenements was 22·6 per 1,000. And the number of deaths occurring in them was 63 per cent. of all the deaths in the Borough.
“The conditions of life obtaining in one-room tenements,” he added, “are such as tend towards poor physique, disease, and death. The density of population is higher, the physical restrictions are greater, and there is less fresh air and more uncleanliness.”
The information thus given by the Census Commissioners as to tenements was striking enough, but of deeper interest and import even than these figures was the information as to “Overcrowding.”
The Medical Officer of Health for the London County Council, utilising the figures of the census, worked out the facts as regarded the overcrowded tenement population of London.
There were 726,096 persons living in an overcrowded state in 124,773 tenements of less than five rooms. Of these—
| 147,771 | lived in | 40,762 | one-room tenements. | |
| 296,659 | „ | 50,304 | two | „„ |
| 187,619 | „ | 23,979 | three | „„ |
| 94,047 | „ | 9,728 | four | „„ |
| ——— | ——— | |||
| 726,096 | 124,773 | |||
There had been a reduction of overcrowded tenements from 145,513 in 1891, containing 829,765 persons, to 124,773 in 1901, containing 726,096 persons.
There would appear then to be some hope that the acme or climax of overcrowding has been passed. But even from the most sanguine point of view the improvement is not great, and many decades would have to elapse before “overcrowding” ceased to be a power for evil.