Page:EB1911 - Volume 13.djvu/845

Rh To what is this remarkable movement due? It is far too general to be attributed to the operation of the Housing Acts; for, though they have helped in some cases, a great diminution has occurred in many places in which no use has been made of them. Towns of all kinds and in all parts of the country exhibit the same movement in some degree; those which had little and those which had much overcrowding, the worst and the best. In London the percentage fell by 3.7, and the number of persons overcrowded was reduced by 103,669 in spite of an increase of population of 324,798. In Gateshead a fall of 6.2%, in Newcastle one of 4.6% took place; while at the other end of the scale Leicester and Derby reduced their already very low proportions by more than one-half. Nottingham is the only exception in the whole list. And in 28 out of the 35 towns the decrease of overcrowding was absolute as well as relative in spite of a large increase of population. London has been cited. The other large towns may be tabulated with it, thus:—

The very divergencies make the uniform diminution of overcrowding the more remarkable. The large increase of population in Liverpool and Bristol no doubt means extension of boundaries, which might have the effect of reducing the proportions of overcrowding, but it cannot account for the actual decrease of overcrowded persons. The change seems to be due to three factors all of which have been in general operation though in varying degrees. They are (1) the centrifugal movement promoted by improved locomotive facilities, (2) the declining birth-rate, (3) public health administration. (1) The first is the most important and the chief element has been tramways, of which a great extension accompanied by electrification took place in the decade. Thus the process of urbanization has been modified by one of suburbanization. Bristol is a prominent case; its overcrowding has been reduced by more than one-half without any large and costly municipal interference, mainly through the operation of ordinary economic forces. Tramways have made the outskirts accessible and builders have utilized the opportunity. They have built good houses, too, under supervision, and Bristol, though an old seaport and industrial town with much poverty, has the lowest general death-rate and the lowest infantile death-rate of all the great towns. (2) The birth-rate and the size of families are conditions which affect overcrowding in a very marked degree, though no attention is paid to them in that connexion. The case of the mining districts and the towns on the Tyne has been mentioned above; the same thing is seen in London, where all the most overcrowded districts (Finsbury, Stepney, Shoreditch and Bethnal Green) have high birth-rates, ranging from 31.3 to 36.4 per 1000 in 1902–1906. The necessity imposed on poor parents of putting several children into a cheap and therefore small dwelling accounts for a large proportion of overcrowding, which automatically diminishes with a falling birth-rate. The ultimate advantage of this method of reducing overcrowding is a question on which opinions may differ, but there is no doubt about the fact. (3) Public health administration is the third general cause; it attracts no notice and works very gradually, but it does work. The last annual report (for 1907) of the medical officer to the London County Council says of overcrowding: “There is reason for thinking that in recent years greater attention has been paid by sanitary authorities to the abatement of the nuisance, and Dr Newman states that in Finsbury there has been an enormous reduction in overcrowding, the reduction having been effected mainly in the years 1901–1905.” The medical officers of the metropolitan boroughs reported in 1907 2613 dwellings overcrowded in 23 boroughs and 3216 such dwellings remedied in 27 boroughs. It should not be forgotten that a good deal of overcrowding is voluntary. Families which have not enough room for their own members nevertheless take in lodgers; and in some places, of which London is the most conspicuous but not the only example, foreigners herd together thickly in a very small space.

The improvement shown by the statistics of overcrowding is confirmed by those relating to the size of dwellings. Between 1891 and 1901 the percentage of the population living in very small dwellings appreciably diminished thus—in 1-roomed dwellings, from 2.2 to 1.6%; in 2-roomed dwellings, from 8.3 to 6.6%; in 3-roomed dwellings, from 11.1 to 9.8%; while the proportion living in dwellings of 5 rooms and upwards increased from 54.9 to 60.1%. This again is referable to the suburban movement and a higher standard of requirements. Six-roomed houses with a bathroom tend to replace the old four-roomed type. The general report accompanying the census says: “However the tenement figures for England and Wales are compared it is impossible to avoid the conclusion that the comparison affords satisfactory evidence of distinct improvement in the housing of the people during the ten years 1891–1901.” In short, the problem of quantity is only acute in a few places and steadily becoming less so.

The foregoing facts apply only to England and Wales. In Scotland the state of things is much less satisfactory. No statistics of overcrowding are available, but the following comparative table shows how different the housing conditions are in the two countries:—

Size of Dwellings, England and Scotland, 1901.

Over 50% of the population of Scotland live in tenements of one or two rooms; only 8.2% in England. A comparison of the largest towns in the two countries gives the following result:—

Percentage of Population.

The conditions in Scottish towns where very tall tenement houses are common, resemble those in other countries, in which overcrowding is far greater than in England. All these matters are comparative, and the superiority of conditions in England ought to be recognized. Yet, in Scotland, too, great improvements have been effected. In 1861 there were 25,959 houses without windows; in 1901 only 130. These facts throw light on the long standing of the housing question, the change of standard and the improvement effected.

In Ireland there is more overcrowding than in England, though probably less than in Scotland, with the possible exception of Dublin, which has a larger proportion of one-roomed dwellings than any Scottish town, namely, 24.7%. The percentage of population living in overcrowded conditions in the principal towns is—Dublin 40.6, Limerick 31.7, Cork 23.4, Waterford 20.6, Londonderry 16.7, Belfast 8.2.