An actual illustration was the case reported by the Medical Officer of Health for Limehouse:—
“The London Dock Company have, for the purpose of enlarging and improving their docks, pulled down not less than 400 houses in the parish of Shadwell, the homes of not fewer than 3,000 persons of the poorer classes.
“… The neighbouring parishes are now suffering from an augmentation of their already overcrowded population.”
The District Board of St. Saviour, Southwark, stated that the evil of overcrowding “can scarcely be exaggerated, whether it be regarded in a physical, mental, or moral aspect.”
The principal of the causes are:—
“(1) The arbitrary power exercised by railway companies in ejecting the labouring classes from their homes without any obligation to provide for their domestic convenience.
“(2) The existing law of (poor law) removal, any break in the three years’ residence in the parish rendering them liable to removal to other distant parishes.”
The latter had, however, most probably, but very small effect.
A great cause was that described by the Medical Officer of Health for Shoreditch:—
“There is a constant and rapid flow of population into Shoreditch. It is in this circumstance that I see one of the most alarming dangers to the health of the district.