Population. Comparative account of the population of Great Britain in the years 1801, 1811, 1821, and 1831; with the annual value of real property in the year 1815: also a statement of progress in the inquiry regarding the occupations of families and persons, and the duration of life. As required by the Population act of 1830 / [Ordered by the House of Commons, to be printed, 19 October 1831.

  • Great Britain. Census Office.
Date:
[1831]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Population. Comparative account of the population of Great Britain in the years 1801, 1811, 1821, and 1831; with the annual value of real property in the year 1815: also a statement of progress in the inquiry regarding the occupations of families and persons, and the duration of life. As required by the Population act of 1830 / [Ordered by the House of Commons, to be printed, 19 October 1831. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    space more than Three Miles in circuit, about 370 Acres in Area. The Wails of London are of Roman foundation, probably of the age of Constantius Chlorus, [a. d. 400.] and have been traced through the enlarged Tower of London (a Norman Fortress) behind the Minories to Aid-gate; behind Hounds-ditch (the ancient Moat) to Bishops-gate; and along London Wall to Cripple-gate, the greatest distance from the River Thames. Thence to Alders- gate, New-gate, (4) Lud-gate, and Blackfriars Bridge* where now is concealed Fleet Ditch, the Western defence of the City. The Population crowded within the Walls for the sake of security, would now be justly deemed excessive, as was proved by frequent pestilence and an unusual rate of mortality at all times; but the great Fire which consumed more than the entire City within the Walls in the year 1660, seems to have precluded pestilence in the renovated City. In the beginning of the last Century the Population was not much less than 140,000, as proved by deduction from the Parish Registers; and the Annual Mortality was as one to Twenty of that Population. Fortunately for the health of the Citizens, space is become more valuable for Warehouses than for human habitation, so that the Population of the City within the Walls is diminished to 55,778, and the rate of Mortality to less than one in Forty. 2. The City of London without the Walls has been acquired by successive Royal grants of Jurisdiction; the main part of it extends westward to Temple-Bar, constituting the best-built part of the Town in the Reigns of the Plantagenets. The space occupied by the City without the Walls, is more than 230 acres; its appearance on the Map has been lessened by colouring the great breadth of the City Moat, which (for example) occupied the space between Houndsditch and Camomile-Street, Devis-Marks, and Duke’s- Place,—the Line of the City Wall; and a similar space West of the Minories, extending to the Street in front of the Crescent and of America Square. Throughout its circuit this Moat is said to have been Two hundred feet wide, abounding with Fish. The Population of this portion of the Metropolis was about 69,000 at the beginning of the last Century, it now amounts to 66,209, 3. The Borough of Southwark on the South side of the River Thames is next to be described. Its origin cannot but be ascribed to the Ferry, which in Roman times connected London with the Military Road to Dover. The Roman Roads were all measured from London Stone, (5) still extant in Cannon-Street, whence the Road passed immediately down to the Water-Gate (6) of the City, the Ferry crossing to the end of a Causeway (now Bank- end) pointing to St. George’s Church, from whence the Line of Roman Road is still in use. The first mention of Southwark is supposed to date from a. d. 1052; but a remarkable event in the year 1008 proves its existence at that time, and shows the origin of its name as a Military work. Sweyn the Danish Invader who had expelled King Ethelred from England died in the preceding year; whereupon Ethelred obtained the aid of Olaf, Chief¬ tain of a band of Northern Adventurers, and attacked the Danes, then in possession of London. But Olaf’s fleet was of little use unless it could pass the fortified Bridge, then of wood, and wide enough for the passage of two Carriages. The Bridge was defended at its South end by a Miliary work placed in what the Historian calls the great Emporium of Southwark. (4) Newgate was called New, because it was rebuilt in the time of Henry V. Previously it was called Chamberlain’s Gate, the Chamberlain’s Office (of City Revenue and Expenditure) being probably held there. This Gate cannot but have been one of the antient Gates of the City, the Roman Watling Street passing along Newgate Street, Holborn, and Oxford Street to Tyburn, where it turns N. W. to St. Alban’s. (5) No defect in the Metropolis is more inconvenient than the want of such a Stone; the various Roads from London being now measured from Ten or Eleven different places. Two, Three, and even Four Miles distant from each other. The Catalogue is curious; Hyde Park Corner, and Whitechapel Church; the Surrey side of London Bridge, and of Westminster Bridge; Shoreditch Church, Tyburn Turnpike; Holborn Bars (long since removed); “The place where St. Giles’s Pound formerly stood”; “The place where Hicks’s Hall formerly stood”; the Standard in Cornhill (of which no other tradition remains, its exact site being unknown); and the “ Stones’ end in the Borough,” which moves with the extension of the Pavement. Thus the actual distance of any place cannot be known without minute inquiry, and local knowledge of London. The easy remedy consists in adopting the Mileage of the Post-Office, when it shall have been re-measured from the new site of that Office, the Frontage of which grand centre of communication could not be more appropriately adorned, than by an Obelisk which would become a London Stone, in imitation of that which stood in the Forum of antient Rome. The Vicinity of St. Paul’s, the most conspicuous object in London, recommends the new Post-Office especially for this purpose; and Turnpike Road Trustees would not refuse to accommodate to it their Mile-Stones, under the direction of the Road-Surveyor of the Post-Office. (6) Dow-gate, Dwr-Gate, Water-Gate, Pennant’s London, p. 334. B3