[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Erith].

  • Erith (London, England). Urban District Council.
Date:
[1909]
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: [Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Erith]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    1/24
    URBAN DISTRICT OF ERITH. Annual Report OF THE Medical Officer of Health, For the Year 1908. Erith, March Ist, 1909. TO THE URBAN DISTRICT COUNCIL OF ERITH. Gentlemen,— I have the honour to submit my Annual Report for the year 1908, in accordance with the Regulations of the Local Government Board. Physical Features and Population. The Urban District of Erith is situated on the south side of the River Thames, immediately outside the County of London, which forms the western boundary. It is bounded on the south and east by the districts of Bexley and Crayford respectively. The portion of the district lying between the River Thames and the South Eastern and Chatham Railway line, 1,689 acres in extent, is marsh land and its level is below that of high water. The remaining portion, 2,170 acres in extent, rises gradually from the level of the marsh land to a considerable height. The District contains a number of factories for various purposes, e.g., gun making, cable making, mining machinery, &c., and the large majority of the inhabitants are connected with these factories. There is also a certain number employed in agricultural and horticultural pursuits. The population at the Census of 1901 numbered 25,296, inhabiting 4,291 houses. Since the Census, 1,392 new houses have been built, 22 of them during 1908, making a total of 5,683. Most of these are six or eight roomed cottages, built to meet the demand for this class of property by the workmen who have come into the district to the factories, and in accordance with the Byelaws in force in the district. In my last report I estimated the population at 28,481; during 1908 the work at some of the largest factories was very slack, and there was no increase of population by immigration. At the middle of 1908 there were about 700 houses empty in the district, but in many cases two families occupied one house, where, previously, when work was good they occupied separate houses. The natural increase of population, that is, the excess of births over deaths, was 505 and adding this number to the estimate for 1907, I estimate the population at the middle of 1908 to have been 28,986, which figures I have adopted for statistical purposes.