Volume 2

Labour and life of the people / edited by Charles Booth ; contributors Charles Booth, Beatrice Potter [and others].

Date:
1889-1891
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Labour and life of the people / edited by Charles Booth ; contributors Charles Booth, Beatrice Potter [and others]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    partly upon wliat may have been pre-supposed. ^ I imagine tbat bad as is the state of things they disclose it is better than was commonly imagined previous to the publication of the figures obtained for East London. On the other hand they are probably worse, especially in regard to the numbers of Classes C and D, than may have been anticipated by those who have studied and accepted the East End figures. • „ ^ T That is to say, the poverty of the rest of London as compared to East London is perhaps greater than most people have supposed. For myself it was so. In 1888 i made an estimate based on the facts as to East London, and the comparative density of population in other parts, on the theory that density would probably coincide with the degree of poverty. The result was to show a probable 25 per cent, of poor for all London, or nearly 6 per cent, less than we now get. South London and the district about Holborn are mainly responsible for the difference. The 100,000 people counted in institutions belong rather to the whole of London than to the particular district in which they are found. They may be divided under four heads :— (1) Indoor paupers ^^'^^^ (2) Inmates of hospitals, asylums, homes, &c., supported mamly by charitable donations, past or present 38,714 (3) Inmates of prisons ^'^^^ (4) Troops in barracks, &c ^'^^O Total 99,830 These people do not belong to the active population, and have therefore been omitted from the percentages given, but if for some purposes it is desirable to introduce them, it will not be unreasonable to include the inmates of the prisons with Class A, the in-door paupers with Class B, those in hospitals, &c., with Classes C and D, and the troops, &c., with Classes E and F. The revised per-