The Portland daily press., 1885-08-12
London and Its Population.

A paper was reau recently at meeting OF
the Statistical Society, held at the Royal
School of Mines, Jermyn street, by Mr.. r.
Price Williams, who stated that the area Of
the metropolis included within the bills of
mortality at the beginning of the present
century q, ,5S7 acres. From time to time more
parishes were included, so that in 1851 the
total area was 75,343 acres, inclusive Of, or
74,427 acres, exclusive of, the water area.
Since 1851 no further additions have been
made. In alluding to the growth, etc., of
population, the paper went ON to say, among
the more noteworthy of the districts is that
of Westminster. Its entire area, which in
cludes the sub-districts of Golden square,
Berwick street, ST. James square and st.
Anne's Soho, is only PIG acres; the popula-
tion in 1S4l was 46,O99, or 213 people per acre,
almost exactly the number to which it had
become reduced in 1881. The population Of
the sub-districts of Berwick street and ST.
Anne's Soho, is the denseSt in the metropo-
lis, and in the case of Berwick street appears
to have attained its maximum of 450 people
per acre in 1851, the highest number ever yet
attained in any sub-district in the metropolis
during the present century. In 1871 the dem
sity of the population had declined to 429
people per acre.
From 1851 down to the last census there
has been a constant decrease in the pOpula-
tion of Berwick street sub-district and the
number of houses per acre; the number Of
people In each house has largely increased,
until it has now the largest number of any
district in London, viz, 14.25 persons per
house, or nearly twice the average of the me-
tropolis in 1881. The number of houses has
decreased from 33.42 per acre in 1881 to 30.08
in 1871 but the district still possesses the lar
geSt number of houses per acre in the me-
tr0pOliS. The sub-district of st. Anne's,
hn 10, STR fA~d
sity of population The district of st. Pan
cTas, which possesses total area of 1858
acres, is one which has increased very mark
edly, the population being in 1901 only 81, ,779,
or II persons per acre, whereas at the last
census the population was 236,25S or SO per
acre. A noteworthy fact Is that the increase
during the last decade is almost precisely the
same as that which occurred during the iirst
decade Of the century-abOut 14,S00. The
increase per cent. is, however, very different,
the amount representing as much as 34.S0 per
cent. increase on the smaller, but only 6.68
per cent. on the larger figures. The largest
increase which has ever occurred in any reg
lStratiOn district in the metropolis during the
present century has occurred in the district
of Islington, the population of which has in
creased 097 during the last decade. In st.
Giles sub-district the greatest denslty-viz.,
303 people per acre-was reached in 1S41 but
since then it has rapidly decreased to 2S3 at
the date of the last census.
The area of the Strand district is 4O3 acres,
and the population, which in 1901 was 50,S54,
or 126 persons per acre, increased very slight
ly until 1921, when it attained its maximum
of 137 per acre. Since 1884, when it had 129
per acre, until 1881 there has been constant
decrease. the population in that year becom-
ing reduced to 1852, or to 50 persons per
acre. The population of the district OF Hol-
born has declined since 1861 from 1886 to
151 1886. The total area of the city of Lendon
district is 6SS acres, and the population in
1901 was 12s,S ,S33. There was slight increase
until 1851, since which, year there has been
very large decrease, the population having
diminished to 51,439. In Bromley the in
crease has during the last 10 years amounted
to S34 per acre, the largest which has ever
occurred in any sub-distriet in London dur
ing this century. The population within the
area of the % registration districts into which
the metropolis is divided was in 1901 958, 1868,
or little under IS people per acre. 1t con-
siderably more than doubled itself in the
next forty years. and very nearly doubled
itself again in the next thirty years Al
though the percentage of increase during the
last 10 years is considerably less than in the
decades 1921 and 1851 the addition to the pop
ulation in that period-viz;, 562, oOO-is by far
resents rather more than the aggregate popu-
latiOn Of the two most pOpulOuS districts in
the metropolis-viz., Kensington and Isling-
ton. 1t also represents an addition in the
course of the last ten years of seven and a
half people per acre, distributed over the en-
tire area of the metropolis.
The results of the Investigation were, the
paper says to show not only the extent Of
the decrease which had occurred in the pop
ulation of the city and some of the more CEN
tral districts, but there were indications that
the point of maximum density had already
been reached in many of the better class of
suburban residential districts 1t was, there
fore, clear that the population included with
in the area of the existing registration dis
tricts of the metropolis could not continue
to increase at the present rapid rate for any
heightened period. 1t might be safely as
serted that without the agency of steam
power the London of to-day would be an
impossibility, and further, that if owing to
sudden invasion or any unforeseen calamity
the facilities now afforded by steam power
for supplying the daily wants of over 4,0O0,-
600 inhabitants were destroyed, London
would be reduced to the verge of starvation
in single week. Previous to the -introdnc-
ton of railways and steam navigation the
food supplies of London were mainly de-
rived from the rural districts in its vicinity;
now. however, by means of steam, all this
had been changed, and its supplies were
drawn from all parts of the world. If
therefore, according to Nautilus, the only lin
it to the increase of population was the suff-
cheney of food supply, London with its enor-
nous wealth and Industrial resources must
long continue to have command of the great
food markets of the world, and so long as it
had this there would appear to be practically
no limit to the increase of its population,