| Under £20 (Exempt from House Duty), | 6,875,000 |
| £20 and over (Charged to House Duty). | 1,912,000 |
| 8,787,000 |
Of the 8,787,000 houses fully 7,000,000 are obviously the homes of the very poor, as we should expect if the statements made in the earlier parts of this book are true. In various districts the accommodation which can be bought for £20 a year varies greatly, as has been already pointed out. £20 per annum may command a decent home in some parts of the provinces or Scotland, or a filthy tenement in East London or Manchester. Broadly speaking, the majority of the houses under £20 are fit for demolition. They rank in our estimate of capital (Chapter 5) for a great deal of money; they command an enormous amount of rent, but, I repeat, they are chiefly fit for destruction. In a minority of cases they are indecent or insanitary; in a majority of cases they are either old or ugly or uncomfortable. Rarely are they fit habitations for a self-respecting people. The same is true of many of the houses up to £40 and even £50 per annum in London and other crowded centres. Many £40 dwellings in London are crowded tenement houses, each of several reeking floors.
What overcrowding means to the lives of those who suffer it may be illustrated by the table prepared by Sir Shirley Murphy, which compares the sanitary areas of Hampstead and Southwark in respect of expectation of life. I have added the fourth column to give prominence to the accusing fact that the poor are robbed not of means alone but of life itself:
EXPECTATION OF LIFE IN HAMPSTEAD
AND SOUTHWARK, MALES ONLY, IN 1897-1900
| Age | Hampstead | Southwark | Expectation of life in Southwark less than that in Hampstead by |
| —— Years | —— Years | —— Years | —— Years |
| At birth | 50.8 | 36.5 | 14.3 |
| 5 | 57.4 | 48.7 | 8.7 |
| 10 | 53.3 | 45.0 | 8.3 |
| 15 | 48.7 | 40.6 | 8.1 |
| 20 | 44.2 | 36.4 | 7.8 |
| 25 | 39.8 | 32.4 | 7.4 |
| 30 | 35.5 | 28.6 | 6.9 |
| 35 | 31.3 | 25.0 | 6.3 |
| 40 | 27.5 | 21.9 | 5.6 |
| 45 | 23.8 | 18.9 | 4.9 |
| 50 | 20.3 | 16.2 | 4.1 |
| 55 | 17.0 | 13.6 | 3.4 |
| 60 | 14.1 | 11.3 | 2.8 |
| 65 | 11.5 | 9.1 | 2.4 |
| 70 | 9.2 | 7.0 | 2.2 |
| 75 | 7.1 | 5.2 | 1.9 |
In Hampstead only 6.3 per cent. of the population live more than two in a room in tenements of less than five rooms, and only 11.1 per cent. of the population live in tenements of one or two rooms. In Southwark, on the other hand, 22.3 per cent. of the population are in the first category, and 31.6 per cent. in the second category. The table enables the reader to measure the years which are stolen from the lives of the inhabitants of Southwark. The area of Hampstead is 2,248 acres and the population 68,416. The area of Southwark is 544 acres and the population 89,800. We should never forget that there are two sorts of crowding, one of which is measured by room or tenement, the other by area.
The Census definition of "overcrowding" by room or tenement is a very modest one. It applies to tenements containing more than two occupants per room, bedrooms and sitting-rooms included. Accepting this definition there were 392,414 overcrowded tenements in England and Wales at the Census of 1901, which were the homes of 2,667,506 people, or 8.2 per cent. of the total population.
That is bad enough, but if we take a more reasonable definition of "overcrowding" and apply the term to all tenements (by tenement is meant a separate occupation, whether a house or part of a house) of three rooms or less we find that in 1901, in England and Wales, as many as 5,853,047 or 18 per cent, of the entire population occupied tenements of either one, two or three rooms. A further 7,130,062 persons or 21.9 per cent. of the population of England and Wales were housed in 4-roomed tenements. The complete tenement figures are as follows:
TENEMENTS (SEPARATE OCCUPATIONS,
WHETHER HOUSES OR PARTS OF HOUSES)
IN ENGLAND AND WALES. 1901
| Number of Rooms in Tenements. | Number of Tenements. | Occupants of Tenements. | Percentage of Total Population in each group of Tenements. | Average Occupants per Room. |
| 1 Room. | 251,667 | 507,763 | 1.6 | 2.02 |
| 2 Rooms. | 658,203 | 2,158,644 | 6.6 | 1.64 |
| 3 Rooms. | 779,992 | 3,186,640 | 9.8 | 1.36 |
| 4 Rooms. | 1,596,664 | 7,130,062 | 21.9 | 1.12 |
| 5 or more Rooms. | 3,750,342 | 19,544,734 | 60.1 | —— |
| 7,036,868 | 32,527,843 | 100.0 | —— |