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of authorities and references to official reports, for the use of Londoners 
who desire not only to understand theiJ: civic and political duties, but to 
argue upon them from exact statistical information. 

A fully enfranchised London citizen has to give at least 5 votes intimately 
affecting the welfare of the community. He has to elect representatives 
for Pru·liament, the County Council, the School Board, the Vestry,
and the Board of Guardians. These duties he too often either dischargeswithout sufficient knowledge, or else shirks altogether because he does not 
lrnow and cannot find out the nature of the responsibilities and powerswhich his vote can confer, or of the abuses which it can abolish if intelligentlyexercised. With "FAcTs FOR LoNDoNERs" in his hand he need no longer be 
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Aldermen. 
Artisans' Dwellings. 
Baths and Wa~h-bouses. 
Expenditure.
Finance. 
Free Libraries 
Police Courts. 
Population.
Poor Rate. 
Burial Boards. 
Cab~. 
GaR CompanieA.
Growth 
Public-houses. 
Rates 
Cemeteries. Guardians of the Poor. Rateable Value. 
Charities. GuildA. RemiFsion of School FePs. 
Children at School. 
Church Rates. 
Hospitals.
Houses. Number of 
Rental. 
Revenue. 
City Companies. 
Common Lodging HouspsCounty Council 
Death Rate. 
Deaths from Starvation. 
DinnerR to ~:School Children. 
Di~pPnsaries. 
Housing of the Poot·. 
Increment. 
Infirmaries. 
Landlords. the Great. 
Licences. 
Lunatic AsylumR. 
Medical Schoo!R 
School Board . 
SchoolR. 
Starvation. 
Thames Conservancy. 
'l'ramways.
Unearned Increment. 
Valuation. 
District Hoards of Work•. 
Docks. 
Mortality.
Mortuaries. 
Vestries. 
Wash-houses. 
~cclcsia•ti~nl ('ommi~RionrrR 
Elrctors. 
hnllowments. 
OmnibnRes. 
Pauprrs.
PolicP. 
Water Companie~. 
WorkbouRPR. 

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~acts for J1onboners : 


AN EXHAUSTIVE COLLECTION OF STATISTICAL AND 
OTHER FACTS RELATING TO THE JJ1ETROPOLIS; 
WITH SUGGESTIONS FOR REF'ORJ.li 
ON SOCIALIST PRINCIPLES. 


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"For the rigltt moment ynu must wait, as Fabius did, most patiently, when u:dn·in§ 
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THE FABIAN SOCIETY consists of Socialists. 
It therefore aims at the reorganisation of Society by the emancipation of 
Land and industrial Capital from individual and class ownership, and the 
vesting of them in the community for the general benefit. In this way onlycan the natural and acquired advautages of the country be equitably shared 
by the whole people. 
The Society accordingly works for the extinction of private property in land 
and of the consequent individual appropriation, in the form of Rent, of the 
price paid for permission to use the earth, as well as for the advantages of 
superior soils and sites. 
The Society, further, works for the transfer to the community of the ad-
ministmtion of such industrial Capital as can be managed socially. For, owing 
to the monopoly of the means of production in the past, industrial inventions 
aud the transformation of surplus income into Capital have mainly enriched 
the proprietary class, the worker being now dependent on that class for leave 
to earn a living. 
If these measure~ be carried out, without compensation (though not without 
such reliaf to expropriated individuals as may seem fit to the community),
Rent and IntereRt will be added to the reward of labor, the idle class now 
Jiving on the labor of others will necessarily disappear, and practical equality 
.of opportunity will be maintained by the spontaueous action of economic 
forces with much less interference with personal liberty than the presentsystem entails. 
For the attainment of these ends the Fabian Society looks to the spread of 
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It seeks to promote these by the general dissemination of knowledge as to the 
relation between the individual and Society in its economic, ethical, and 
political aspects. 
LECTl"llES.-A li.•t of Lectu1·es which a1·e given by memlie1·s of the Sociei•J can 
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.SYDNEY OLIVIER, G. BERNARD SHAW, GRAIIA~I WALLAS, aud SIDNEY \VEDB. 
(ESTABLISHED 1883.) 
"For the rigltt moment ynu must wait, as Fabius did, most patiently, when u:dn·in§ 
u:;ainst llanni/wl, tltvuglt many censured his delays; but when the time comes you 
must strike hard, as Fabius did, or your waiting will be in vaiu, and fruitless." 
THE FABIAN SOCIETY consists of Socialists. 
It therefore aims at the reorganisation of Society by the emancipation of 
Land and industrial Capital from individual and class ownership, and the 
vesting of them in the community for the general benefit. In this way onlycan the natural and acquired advautages of the country be equitably shared 
by the whole people. 
The Society accordingly works for the extinction of private property in land 
and of the consequent individual appropriation, in the form of Rent, of the 
price paid for permission to use the earth, as well as for the advantages of 
superior soils and sites. 
The Society, further, works for the transfer to the community of the ad-
ministmtion of such industrial Capital as can be managed socially. For, owing 
to the monopoly of the means of production in the past, industrial inventions 
aud the transformation of surplus income into Capital have mainly enriched 
the proprietary class, the worker being now dependent on that class for leave 
to earn a living. 
If these measure~ be carried out, without compensation (though not without 
such reliaf to expropriated individuals as may seem fit to the community),
Rent and IntereRt will be added to the reward of labor, the idle class now 
Jiving on the labor of others will necessarily disappear, and practical equality 
.of opportunity will be maintained by the spontaueous action of economic 
forces with much less interference with personal liberty than the presentsystem entails. 
For the attainment of these ends the Fabian Society looks to the spread of 
Socialist opinions, and the social and political changes consequent thereon. 
It seeks to promote these by the general dissemination of knowledge as to the 
relation between the individual and Society in its economic, ethical, and 
political aspects. 
LECTl"llES.-A li.•t of Lectu1·es which a1·e given by memlie1·s of the Sociei•J can 
/,e obtuiued 1111 ajplication to the Lecture Secretary, SIDNEY WEDB, '27 A't·ppllStreet, lV.C. 
PUBLICATIONS.-Of the seriu of" FABIAN TRACTS" the undermentioned m·e 
.stiU in pnut, and may be obtained of the Freethought Pui,Li.,J.iny Company, 6:1 
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~acts for ~onboners. 


'fHE Socialist Programme of immediately practicable reforms for 

London cannot be wholly dissociated from the correspondingProgramme for the Kingdom. The mighty "province covered with 
houses,'' which we know as London, does but sum up, and presentin aggravated form, the social problems everywhere awaiting solution. 
If London's million wage earners are oppressed by the abstraction of 
rent and interest from the produce of their toil-an inevitable result 
of private appropriation of the land and other instruments of wealth 
production necessary for their existence-their oppression is but 
typical of that of the workers elsewhere, and can be put an end 
to only in common with that of the rural and provincial workers 
outside the Metropolitan area 

• .\.ccordingly. most of the immediate reforms of greatest importance 
to London are, at the same time, matters of national concern 
To reacl1 the common end---the emancipation of land and industrial 
ap1tal from individual or class ownership, and the vesting of them 

n the community for the general benefit -reformers in all parts of 

he kingdom must push forward together along a common path.

The fiscal burdens of the London workers can be relieved only 
through a thorough REFORM OF NA•.rroNAL TAXATION, by which 
Customs. Excise and other imposts falling upon the worker or consumer 
will be superseded by a gradual recovery of the entire Rent 
and Interest of the .::ountry for public purposes by means of an INCREASED 
LAND TAx, especially on urban properties; a GRADUATED 
ANt DIFFERENTIATED INCOME TAx; and DEATH DuTIES, INCREASED, 
EQUALISED, CoNSOLIDATED, and GRADUATED. The sweating system, 
and .:>ther forms of mdustnal oppressiou suffered by the poorerLondon worker, can be alleviated by a wide ExTENSION OF THE 
FACTORY AND ·woRKSHOP AcTs, with an increase in the number of 
inspectors, and the further gradual reduction, by law, of the maximum 
hours of labor. The harsh treatment of the destitute poor 
can be humanized by a general REFORM OF THE PooR LAw AND 
ITS ADMINISThATION so as to provide more satisfactorily than at 
present for the children, the aged, and the temporarily unemployed. 
The political helplessness of the London citizen can be remedied 
by ADULT SUFFRAGE, SHORT PARLIAMENTS, PAYMENT OF ELECTION 
ExPENSES AND OF ALL PuHLIC REPRESENTATIVES, and EFFECTIVE 
CoNTINuous REGISTRATION BY PuBLIC OFFICERS. In all these 
llla,tters the Programme for London is identical with that for every 
other centre of population in the country. 


FACTS FOR LONDONERS. 

But London is more than a city: it is a whole kingdom in itself, 
with revenues exceeding those of mighty principalities. With its 
suburbs it exceeds all Irela.nd in population if it were emptied 
to-morrow the whole of trhe inhabitants of Scotland and Wales together 
could do no more than refill it : the three next largest cities 
in the world coulrl be combined without outnumbering its millions. 
One seventh of the total population of the United Kingdom is 
gathered into the metropolitan centre, which forms at once the 
largest manufacturing town and the greatest port, the chief literaryand scientific centre as well as the commercial, banking, shipping 
and insurance emporium of the world. As such it has needs and 
problems peculiar to itself. In the following pages the Londoner 
will find the facts and figures without which be can neither understand 
his position nor discharge his duties as a citizen. 

LONDON'S SIZE AND GROWTH. 
THE "Administrative County" of London, with its 58 Parliamentary 
constituencies, measures 16t miles in extreme length (east and 
west) from Plumstead to Bedford Park, and 11! miles in extreme 
breadth (north and south) from Stamford Hill to Anerley. This 
area comprises, including the " City" proper, 75,490 acres, or nearly119 square miles (being three-quarters the size of Rutland or the Isle 
of Wight). The independent municipal boroughs of West Ham (population, 
1881, 128,953), Croydon (population, H~Sl, 101,241), and Richmond 
(population, 1881, 21,302) now adjoin it on the N.E., S., and 
S.W., whilst on the West and North the "Urban Sanitary Authorities" 
of Chiswick, Twickenham, Acton, Ealing, Willesden, Hendon, 
Harrow, Homsey, Finchley, Edmonton, Barnet and Tottenham also 
practically belong to the metropolitan aggregation of population.
The 119 square mtl.es had, in 1881, 488,995 inhabited houses, containing 
at that date 3,814,571 persons (1,797,486 males and 2,018,997 
females), being 14·69 per cent. of the population of England and 
Wales; 51 to the acre, 32,640 to the square mile, 7·8 to each house 
(Census Report, c. 3563). Particulars as to the distribution of these 
millions will be found on page 6. 
This population was estimated to have increased, in 1889, to 
4,306,380 persons, representing about 860,000 families, living in 
549,283 houses (Report of Metropolitan Board of Works, 1888, p. 7).
Its growth, continuous for at least 500 years, has gone on since the 
beginning of the century (when it had only 136,196 houses, ibid, p. 7) 
at a prodigious and ever accelerating rate. Taking the best estimates 
prior to l t:lOl , and the Census since that date, we get the followingtable :


Per('~ntncre Percent:lr'c 
Y ear Population of Enghuld Ycnr I'op;alation of Eugluild

1;{50 \10.1!00 a·oO 18:!1 . . . l,:!:!i,5\JO IU·~;; 
1t\loO .. 181J 000 3·27 1841 1.8/:!,3ti5 .. 11.78 
l fi.jO ... 35U.ULIO G·26 18.) 1 2.3ti:.!.:!~6 13·18 
JiO,l 550 OOIJ 9·16 18G1 2.80:~.98\J 13·\)71750 600,000 9·16 18il ... 3.:.!54,:!60 14·33 
1801 ... 8<H.O:J5 ... 9·12 1881 .. . 3.81-±.571 ... 14·69 
(Encyclopmtli<J. l:hilannlca, vol. xiv. p. 821; and Censu8 Report, C-3797.) 


FAcTs FOit LoNDONERS. 

Since the end of the seventeenth century it has overtopped Paris 
as the largest city in Emope; but it~ unquestioned commercial, 
industrial and financial supremacy probably dates only from the 
"industrial revolution" of the last century and the Napoleonic wars. 
It is now estimated t.o contain 250,000 persons of Irish and 120,000 
of Scotch parentage; <15,000 .-\.siatics, Africans and Americans; with 
some 60,000 Germans, 30,000 French, 15,000 Dutch, 12,000 Poles, 7500 
Italians, 5000 Swiss, and 40,000 Jews. (Ency. Brit., vol. xiv. p 822.) 

The number of registered Parliamentary electors on 1st January,
1889, was 518,770 (H. C., No. 179 of 1889); in November, 1885, it 
was 476,294 (H. C., No. 144 of 1888). The number of male adults 
may be estimated at a quarter of the population, or about 1,075,000 
in 1889. Hence less than half the men in London can vote; but at 
the 1885 election only 351,779 (about one-third) did vote, and in 
1886 even fewer. The poorest constituencies have usually not onlythe smallest percentages of elect()rate to population, but also the 
smallest percentages of poll to electorate. 

The above statistics take no account pf plural votes and duplicateregistrations, of which it is estimated that London has at least 
50,000 (iXle City's 31,685 electors nearly all have also votes elsewhere). 
The 2923 electors of London University are not included. 

THE SOCIAL CONDITION OF LONDONERS. 
LoNDON contains 860,000 families. How many of there are in 
destitute circumstances, and how many comfortably off'? The official 
census statistics give no information on this point; but Mr. Charles 
Booth, with the aid of a staff of assistants, has, during the last three 
years, been making exhaustive inquiries into the subject, and has 
taken, chiefly by minute investigations into the books of the 66 School 
Board Visitors, a complete industrial census of East London (TowerHamlets, Shoreditch, Bethnal Green, anc1 Hackney), comprising 
about one-quarter of the whole. His results are presented in detail 
in his book, "Life and Labor in East London " (Williams and Nor-
gate). His classification is given in the following table:Number 
ot PPr ceut. 
persons (in-of whole 
cluding women popula-
Class. and <·hildrPn). tion. 

A. Lon.fers, casunls. anu semi.crimina1Roo• 1.,unu Jt 
B. 
Crumal earnings, very poor, IJelow 18s. perweek (in chronic wan!:) ]()(1,0()0 1J-} 
C. lntE'rmittent earnings of' 1~•. to 21. l><'r week 7~.0()0 !:1-.} 
D. Small regular earnings of J8s. to llls. per week l~U UUO lJt 
Total "in poverty '' 00. 00. 314·,000 3 1~ 

E. 
Regular standard earnings, artisans, etc., 22s. 
to 30s. per w~ek .. 37i,OOO q·H 
F. Higher class labor, 30s. to 50~. per WE'ek oo• 12 :,ouo l;Jt -· 
G. Lower mid!llP-class. shopkeepers, clerks, etc. 3 LOOO '1 
H. 
Upper middle-class-" the servant.keeping
class"-mostly in Hackney ... 45,000 
5 

89f.uuo 

Inmates ofworkhouses.a•ylums, hO"pita ls. etc. 17,000 

Estimated population, 1887 oo• 908.000 


6 FACTS FOR LoND01'1ERS. 

,. 

I

II 
II


J 

) 
)
II 

At least a third of the poorer population migrate within hYelve 
months. "A return prepared by one of the School Board visitors, 
who has a fairly representatiYe district in Bethnal Green, shows that 
of 120-! families (with 2720 children), 530 (with 1450 children) removed 
in a single year." (C. Booth, "Life and Labor in East London," 
p. 27.) 

It may be noted that female heads of families (widows, or deserted 
wives) living in hcuses of not more than £35 rental were found to 
number, with their children, 34,020, representing about 8000 households, 
or nearly 4 per cent. of the whole. Half of these supportedthemselves by ·washing or "charing," and one-third were in Class B: 
that is to say, "in chronic want." (ibid, p. 61.) 

In his paper read before the Royal Statistical Society (see Journal, 
June 1888), .M:r. Booth has ex.tenrled his statistics hypothetically so 
as to include all London. He finds North Lambeth and St. Saviour's 
Southwark, only just behind Bethnal Green, St. George's-in-the-East, 
Whitechapel, Poplar, and Shoreditch in wretchedness, while St. 
Olave, Holborn, St. Giles and Soho are not better than Mile End 
and Stepney. These are the districts poorer than the London average. 
The following table gives his classification of London districts 
in sequence of poverty, with particulars upon which the classification 

is based:-

Bethnal Green ... 
St. George's a.ud Whitecbapel...
Shoreditch 


North Lambeth (riverside)

St. Saviour's 

Poplar

Ho1boro 

St. Olave ... 

Mile End and Stt>l-'llPY ... 

St. Giles, Soho, So. James, and Stmnd 

GrePnwich 

St. Panora• 

Camberwell 

Wa.nclsworth 

Lewisham 

Hackney

blington ... 
Woolwich ... 
Fnlham .. . 

Cbelsea ... 
St. George'e, HanO\•er Square·.:: 


Lambeth (remainder of)


Marylebone and Hampstead


Paddington ... 

City of London ... 

Kensingtou 

00 
~ 
.:: 
= ~ 
~ 
0"' 
0 
~§:; 
~] 
~:..; 
~~ 
t""""::.. 
£ ., 
~ =,.; 
I; 
-
j=:)-'· 
;~ 
~E 
~ · [; 
~ 
g 
;~ 
3.::: 
E 1: 
g, , 
~= ~~ 
:,.. ~ 
£ 
~~ 
:,.. 'l o g;'
;,;,) 
~~~ b..: 
i ~c 
126,961 
u8.::'dO 
126.591 
91.281 
1()5 
227 
207 
191 
2~ 
26 
~5 
2~ 
7·6 
8[) 
1:!-1 
7·1* 
22 
·~:J 
:3!) 
3i* 
2·!) 45 
Hl -J.:J 
J, 6 I() 
5·1* 10 
195.16~ 
156,510 
Hil H% 
\77 
125 
1!13 
22 
17 
19 
ll6 
7·i 
10 0 
3!) 
:13 
5!'l 
·10 
4d 
5·!! 
37 
36 
35 
Ia1-.G32 
HH.1:\6 
1~;j 51:1 
13 I 
](j.) 
175 
17 
22 
16 
7·7 
7· 1· 
~0 9 
I;) 
:·Ill 
16:! 
r;.s 
J·l) 
I ~-5 
:35 
30 
:lO 
131 ~;):-j 
23fi ~;;8 
fi2 
131 
10 
14 
6 (i 
91i 
:H 
59 
l·l:i 
6·2 
30 
:!5 
ll:ifi.5!J3 5S !:) 6·8 31 4·5 25 
210.~:H 36 5 7·1 -lii 5·n :!5 
73 ;l27 
18G,I-62 
28~ 8fl5 
20 
61i 
102 
3 
10 
12 
6·2 
()·8 
8·ti 
48 
a(j 
~3 
7·6 
52 
5·3 
"15 
23 
tO 
80.8 ~5 20 3 6!! 30 4-·5 20 
ll-~839 
88.128 
57 
118 
8 
15 
7·0 
7·9 
3~ 
4il 
49 
5·1· 
15 ,·
<> 
149,7-J-8 
162,·118 
200,362 
107,218 
51.439 
1B 
53 
68 
107 
85 
13 
8 
7 
13 
ll 
8··1 132 15·8 15 
7·;* 37* 5·1* 15 
9·1 83 9·1 10 
8·1 91 11·2 10 
7·8 380 1'9·4 10 
163,151 90 11 8·1 83 10·2 5 

Tot11l fvr London ... 3.816.183 78 10 7·8 57 73 25 

* For wholl! of Lambeth. 

FAcTs FOR LoNDo::sEns. 

"Taking the estimated percentages of poverty as given in the 
tables, and the population of 1881, we get a total of 963,043 poor in 
London; or, with the population of to-day as our basis, ra:her more 
than 1,000,000. This number does not include indoor paupers, or 
other inmates of institutions." 

Class A. 50,000

B. 300 000 
" c. 2GO.Oil0 
" D. 400,0()0
Classes E. F. G. and H. 3,000,000 

4,000,000

(p. 305 of R.S.S. Journal, June, 1888). 
One out of four of the whole population is thus computed to be 
earning-and that irregularly-not more than a guinea a week per 
family ; and over a third of these are receiving much less, and, says:Yir. Booth, "live in a state of chronic want ·• (p. 33 of "Life and 
Labor in East London"). This correspo!lds to the proportion indicated 
by the statistics of mortality. 

In London one person in every five will die in the "·orkhouse, 
hospital, or lunatic asylum. In 1~87, out of 82,545 deaths in London, 
43,507 being over twenty, 9,399 were in workhouses, 7,201 in 
hospitals, and 400 in lunatic asylums, or altogether 17,000 in publicinstitutions (Registrar-General's Report, 1888, C.-5, 138, pp. 2 and 
73). Considering that comparatively few of these are chiluren, it is 
probable that one in every three London adults will be driven mto 
these refuges to die, and the proportion in the . case of the manual 
la.bor class must, of course, be much greater.

One in eleven of the whole metropolitan population is driven to 
accept Poor Law relief during any one year (seep. 20), and that 

•1otwithstandmg the existence of org<tnised metropolitan charities 
t1stimated to disburse over £!,000,000 annually (Encyclopoodia Britannica, 
vol. xiv., p. 833), and that in Middlesex and Surrey there 
were in 1888, 1,152,189 Post Office Savings Bank accounts open,
with an aggregate balance of £15,410,541 (H.C. 177 of 1889). In 
spite of all, 29 deaths were referred, in 1888, to direct and obvious 
starvation (H.C. Return, No. 136, 1889). 
LONDON'3 ANNUAL RENTAl~. 

THERE are no means of ascertaining the exact amount of rent 
received annually by the lan·llords of London. The total rental 
value can, however, be arriYed at approximately from tbe ofticial 
assessment. All lan(ls and houses throughout the metropolitan 
area are re-valued every fifth year for rating purposes; and in the 
meantime supplementary valuation lists include all new buildings 
and structural alterations as soon as occupied. Under the Valuation 
(Metropolis) Act, 32 & 33 Vic., the assessment :musr in all cases 


J!'ACTS FOR LONDONERS. 

be equal ·to the full annual value at which the property would 
let from year to year, the tenant paying taxes, but not executingrepairs. Returns of rentals are quinquennially obtained by the 
Overseers of each parish; and, although the valuation and rental 
may not be exactly equal, there can be no doubt that the valuation 
does not, on the whole, exceed the gross rental. The total "grossvaluation" for the year 1886 was £37,027,516. The so-called "rateable 
value," obtained by a fixed deduction from the gross valuation, 
was £30,446,336 (C-5526, p. clxxxi.).

There can accordingly be no doubt that the total rental of London 
land and houses is at least 

THIRTY-SEVEN MILLION POUNDS 

sterling annually. How much of this represents the rental value of 
the bare site cannot be ascertg,ined. It has been estimated that the 
so-called "ground rents," or rents reserved in building leases, amount 
to some £6,000,000 a year; but as all London is not leasehold, these 
are not universal, and in most cases do not represent the full presentvalue of the site. Calculations based on the ith rease during the past 
twenty years (p. 10) indicate that the total u.nnual value of the 
bare site must exceed .£15,000,000 per annum. This is the price we 
pay year by year to our ground landlords for the privilege of occupying 
the low hills and swampy marsh by the Thames, which labor 
has made so productive. 

The balance of .£22,000,000 per annum represents the annua.l 
rental value of the buildings on that site. But, in addition to this 
payment, the total " rates" now levied in London, as described in 
pages 13 and 14, amount to over £7,500,000, bringing the total annual 
cost of inhabiting London up to ne11rly £45,000,000, less than one-
sixth of this being at present devoted to public purposes. 

This total amounts to, on an average, for each of London's 
860,000 families :


For Ground Rent 6s. 9d. per week. 

, House Reut 9s. lOd. 

, Rates 3s. 5d. , , 

20s. Od. * 
London's landlords include all sorts and conditions of men, from 
the ducal ground landlord and the wealthy leaseholder, whom the 
Leasehold Enfranchisement Association fondly yearns to tum into 
a freeholder, down to the tenant in " beneficial occupation" at less 
than a rackrent, and the shareholder in a Building Society. But the 
great bulk of the rental goes into comparatively few hands. Amongthe largest owners are the Ecclesiastical Commissioners (especially 
in Pad~1ington, Notting Hill and Lambeth), the City Companies-
see p. 44 -(especially in the City, St. Giles' and St. Martin's), the 

* It must not, however, be forgotten that the rental value of urban centres 
ought, economically, to be " nationalized," not" municipalized." 

FACTS FOR LONDONERS. 

National Government, through the Office of Woods and Forests 
(especially near Regent Street, the Regent's Park and on the Hoiborn 
VIaduct), and through the Exhibition Commissioners of 1851 
(at South Keusington), various Colleges at Oxford and Cambridge(notably 1\lagdalen ), the three great endowed hospitals, St. Bartholomew's, 
St. Thomas's, and Guy's (especially at Southwark and in 
the City), and the great charitable foundations (such as Christ's 
Hospital and the Foundling Hospital). 

To this extent the property is, in some sense, already "municipalized" 
or "nationalized," though the proceeds are often ·woefullymisapplied. Next in order come the great private ground landlords: 
the Duke of Westminster (Belgravia, Pimlico, the Grosvenor Squaredistriet), the Duke of Bedford (Bloomsbury, the Covent Garden district, 
and Ampthill Square), Lord Portman (West Marylebone), Lord 
Cadogan (Chelsea), Sir W. Carr Gomm (Rotherhithe), the Duke of 
Portland (East Marylebone), the Marquis of Northampton (Clerkenwell), 
the Duke of Norfolk (South of the Strand), the Marquis Camden 
(Camden Town), Lord Southampton (Tottenham Court Rd. and Kentish 
Town), Sir Spencer Maryon Wilson (Hampstead), Captain Pen-
ton, M.P. (Pentonville), the Marquis of Salisbury (St. Martin's Lane),
the Tyssen-Amherst family (Hackney), the Eyre family (St. John'£ 1Wood), the Curzon family (Mayfair). Itwill be seen that practicallythe whole of these "great landlords" are "hereditary legislators."
Nearly all their property is in strict settlement, but a life owner has 
now legally large powers of disposal: it is nevertheless practical!~· 
impossible to obtain anything more than a terminable lease on the 
1arge proportion of London comprised in these and other estates.* 

LONDON'S "UNEARNED INCREMENT." 

BESIDES the annual rental, the owners of London receive a continual 
stream of wealth in the " unearBed incren1ent " of value 
co-nstantly being added to their property.

The annual rental of the metropolitan area at the revaluation in 
1886 was about £37,000,000, representing a saleable value, if only 15 
years' purchase be taken, of £555,000,000. In 1870 the annual rental 
was only £22,000,000, equal to a saleable value of £330,000,000. 
'l'he total increment during those sixteen years was, therefore, 
fifteen millions a year rent, representing a growth in saleable value 
of no less than £225,000,000. A large part of this increased value 
was, however, caused by expenditure on new buildings. The sub-. 
urban districts have been filling up; and the central districts have ,, 
been extensively rebuilding. Fortunately the annual revision of the 
valuation list enables us to distinguish between new buildings (together 
with any structural alterations to old ones) and the rise in 
rent of unaltered land and buildings. We are thus able to ascertain 

* See " The Great Landlords of London," by Frank Banfield, M.A. (Spen· 
cer Blackett). 

FACTS Fon LoNDONERS. 

separately, from official figures, the annual growth from this cause 
in all years except those of the qniuqneunial rev1duation. As those 
periods have no influence on the building tracles, it is fair to assume 
that the average of the other years applies also to them; anu thus 
we have the total growth in rental can'led by builuing operations 
very accurately ascertained. Errors of valuation no doubt occur; 
but these may be assumed to balance each other; and no one can 
pretend that Loudon is, on the whole, even now oYer-assessed. Anya.Ciditional growth must have been due to intensified demand for 
existing buildings. causeu by increasing population, by the advance 
of London. as an industrial centre, and by the helpless condition of 
the London poor. All landlords do not benefit equally; but from 
the point of view of the community at large this annual net increase 
is a real "unearned increment." How much it amounts to, the table 
given below, compiled from the Loc~l Government Board's report,
will shew. (0-5526, p. clxxxi, and previous i3sues). 

Increase due 11 Unearned 

I

Gross Total

On 6th April. 

to new buildings increment" of

ValuOltion. Increase. 

I 
I 
(ann·.:al rental). annual ret:tal.

I 

£ £ 

£ 

£

-,

Tc.; jO 

22,142-700 .... 

.... 

. .. . 

24,103,083 r,960,3i7

I 71 

1,410 869 
l:-i 72 

•5+9-508 
24-388,000 284.917 

....

284.917 

r873 

24,756,7 I I 368,7 I I 

... . 

36S 7 II

I 

r8;1 

25,148,011 391,322 

....

391.)22

I

I875 

....

426.333

25·'H·366 

426,333 

2,028,28~

1876 

27 .602,6+9 

•5J').5o8 
1·47s.ns

86z, 184

I8i i 

28,46+,833 

862.18-+ 

.... 

1878 

562,962 

562,962 

....

29."~i.79 ;

r8;g 

29,682.269 

... . 

654·474 

6s4.+.'4

188o 

73;,,802

30,421,071 

....

738,802

r88 1 

2,96],780

33,184,85 I 

2,414,272r882 

•549.508 
471,066 

.. .. 

471.066
33.855·917 

r88l 

614,808 

614,808 

34.470,725 

.... 

r884 

3S· 1oo,7o4 

629.979 
....

629,979 

r88s 

35,689,244 

s8S,s4o 

....

s88,54o

1886 

1.338, 2~2

37,027,516 

.549.)08 

788,764

Average of 17 
years ...... . . 

£29.-j6 1 ,204 I£14 884,8 10 

£6,092,68o

£8,792,130 

Increase of 12 ordinary 
years . ... 6,594,098 


•Estimated at 
Increase of 4 quinaverage 
of the 
quennial periods 8,2g0,712 

other I 2 years. 

£14,884,810 

The total ''unearned increment" during this period (up to the last 
general valuation) is thus seen to have been £6,092,680 in annual 
rental, representing a saleable value of over 

NIXETY MILLIONS STERLING. 

It amounts to one-sixth of the total saleable value of London. It is 
what we have deliberately allowed the London landlords to recei 1·e, 


FACTS FOR LoNDONERS. 

over and above their former annual tribute, during the short space

of 20 years. This is the princely gift of the London worker to the 

London landlord. It must no~, however, be supposed that tl•is 

growth in value has all been received by the freeholder, sti:. less 

by the "great landlords." A large portion of it has been tempor


arily intercepted by house-farmers, leaseholders, copyholders, and 

other types of "landlord." 

Let us see what we might have done with it if we had listened to 
the political economists, who warned us that it would happen. If 
the existing land tax of four shillings in the pound had, in 1870, 
been levied on the landlord at the current valuation (instead of uponthat of 1692) it would hardly have deprived him of any of his then 
income ; his total payments would have been only slightly in excess 
of the unearned increase brought to him by London's growth. During 
the last 20 years just about £90,000,000 has been levied in Loudon 
by rates If the landlord had been compelled to pay every farthing 
uf these rates (in addition to anything he may now indirectly bear) 
he would be as well off now as he was 20 years ago. 

The average rise of London rent (on unaltered buildings) is !een to 
have been £304,634 per annum, or 1·03 per cent. on the averagevaluation. This annual rise in rent represents au annual ad1htwn 
to the saleable value of the property of about £4,500,000. This is 
our anm~al "New Year's Gift" (in addition to the £37,000,000 
annual tribute of rent) to those who do us the favor to own London. 
The total rates levied annually amount now to over £7.000,000, and 
must inevitably increase with the cessation of the coal dues, the 
growth of social compunction, and the extension of corporate activity. 
Would it be anything but bare justice to absorb, in order to meet 
this deficit (and in addition to any tax on the landlord's rent), the 
whole of the £4,500,000 annually added to the value of London? 
A landlord's rate of half-a-crown in the pound on the "rateable 
value" would realiL~e not quite thi~ amount. It should be deductible 
from the rent in the manner in which the "property tax" (IncomeTax, Schedule A) is now deducted, "any agreement to the contrarynotwithstanding." . 

One suggestion may be addeu. If the £15,000,000 total increase 
in London's rental value during 20 years of enormous buildingoperations is divided so that .£9,000,000 is due to them and £6,000,000 
to" unearned increment," we may hypothetically infer that a similar 
proportion holds good of the total rental value. In that case, out of 
the annual rental of £37,000,000, we may estimate that £22,000,000 
is for buildings, and some 

£15,000,000 l"OR GROUND RENT ONLY, 

This state of things is not peculiar to London. It is the inevitable 
result of private ownership of land in advanced industrial communities. 
Every town in England shews similar results. Thus, in 
1866, the annual value of the land and houses in the county of Lancaster 
was £10,029,967; at the next valuation, in 1872, it had risen 
to £12,552,000; in 1877 it had increased to £15,626,890; and aecord



,. 


12 .I!'ACTS FOR LONDO::-<ERS. 

ing to the last valuation, made in 1884, and revised to March 31, 
1889, it was £18,595,99J; so that in little more than 20 years the 
annual value of the whole county has been nearly doubled. Tables 
recently compiled by the county auditor for the use of the CountyCouncil s\ow the present valuations of the principal boroughs to be 
as follows ;-Liverpool, £3,438,074; Manchester, £2,520,938 ; Sal-
ford, £734,220; OBham, £480,060; Bolton, £416,362; Blackburn, 
£413,514; Preston, £341,060; Rochdale, £2H,~W6. ("Tables compiled 
by the Auditor of the Lancashire County Council, 1889.") 
Judging from the analogy of London, two-fifths of this annual value 
would be the rental of the bare site. 

The "City" of London alone increased in rateable value sevenfold 
between 1801 and 1881, viz., from .£507,372 to £3,535,494; or from 
£760 per acre per annum to £5,300 per acre per annum. (EncyclopCEdia 
B1·itannica, Vol. xiv., pp. 820, 832). The proportion of the 
rental value of the bare site to that of the erections upon it, is here 
much more than two-fifths. 

MUNICIPAL REFORM. 

l'HE capital of the empire has at last got its directly electerl 
central municipal body of 118 elected members (with 19 co-opted 
aldermen!) under the name of County Council; but so much still 
remains to be done before London attains the freedom and social 
activity of the provincial cities, that municipal reform must still 
remain a prominent feature in the Social Democratic programme.

Much of the ordinary work of a municipality, inch,tding the paving,
lighting, watering and cleansing of the streets, the abatement of 
nuisances, the enforcement of the sanitary laws, the removal of dust, 
the construction and maintenance of local sewers, still re!nains in 
the hands of a congeries of obscure local boards, the 3,000 members 
of which, though nominally elected, are practically unknown, unchecked, 
unsupervised and unaudited. The duties neglected by these 
vestries and district boards are more important than those they 
attempt to perform. For instance, under the Laboring Classes 
Dwelling Houses Acts (14 and 15 Vic. cap. 34, and subsequent Acts)
they long had power (now transferred to the County Council) to 
acquire land and to build or hire tenement or lodging houses for 
the poor. They still have power (under the Sanitary Acts, especially 
29 & 30 Vic. c. 90) to condemn and close insanitary dwellings,
and (under the Torrens Act, 31 & 32 Vic. c. 130, and others) 
to acquire and pull down condemned houses. They have power 
to make and enforce stringent rules for all houses let in lodgings 
or tenements, providing for their systematic registration, in· 
spection, and sanitation; enforcing proper accommodation; providingagainst overcrowding, and for the separation of the sexes. Theyhave power (18 and 19 Vic. c. 120, sec. 118) to organize a regular 
corps of crossing-sweepers-if need be, from the unemployed-and so 
to put a stop to the present evil system of licensed mendicity. They 


FACTS FOR LoNDONERS. 

have power in every parish to do what has been done only in a few, 
to provide public libraries, baths, and wash-houses, mortuaries, 
water closets, open spaces, seats for the weary, and other conveniences 
for common use. 

But these Acts are not compulsory. The vestry has power to do 
all these things ; but it also has power not to do tlaem until the 
citizens wake up to their responsibilities and compel it to take action. 
Unfortu~ately, those who suffer most from parochial neglect are not 
influential. There has been, no really democratic control: consequently 
the vestries have almost uniformly neglected their most 
important public functions, and largely mismanaged those which 
they have undertaken. 

Notwithstanding their mismanagement and negl-ect of duty, the 
Vestries and District Boards are exceedingly costly. The total 
sums levied by the different local governing bodies in the metropolisin five recent years were as follows (C-5G:l6) :


----~----

LocAL AuTHORITIES. 

r88r-Sz. 

tSSs-86.

r883-84.

1873-74· I I379·HJ. 

METROPOLITAN. 

£ 

£

£ 

£

£ 

Poor Law Authorities .. .. 

I ,602,020 

1,738,2!6 

2,231, loO I

I ,967,620 

2,373,o8oMetropolitan Vestries and Dis-1 

I, 126,825 

r,6os, 7 sz 

r,632,58o

r ,607,391 

r,655,975 

trict Boards, &c. jCommissioners of Sewers ofl 

22$,662

211,700 

140,686 

200,652

142,776

the City of London ) 
Metropolitan Board of 'Vorks 

2!8,780 

7r6,r86

639,582 

837.575 
Commissioners of Police of\ 
554>448 

6oz,o28 

5!0,205 

639,75 1 68!,154

583.967

the Metropolis .. f 
Corporation of London .. 

73·542 77,520 
Burial Boards .. 

67,154 

75,670

65.393 

rr,r8r 

6,C97 
Churchwardens (Church Rate) 

7,6!3

6,955 

7,589 

5,58o 
School Board 

5,520

5,524 

5·438 

5.5°3 

661,175

64,462 

754.589 
977.C59 
Commissioners of Baths 

541.7!7 

and} 

13,605

9,787

5.435 
Washhouses 

_:;.6qli .72 <; 

f>.2 .J+~iG~G,83o,sr2

5,220,79~

3.907,9 13 

In 1887-8 the total rates levied amounted to £7,562,310 (House 
of Commons Return 126 of 1889) . 

As the areas administered by the different Vestries, &c., vary considerably 
in size, population, wealth, and general character, their 
resources and their e:,:peuditures are very different. The poorerparishes have the heavier burdens. The "rate" levied varies from 
about 2s. to 3s. 6d. in the £ (irrespective of the Poor Rate-see page14). The following table gives the particulars for the year 1885-6 
excluding the City:



FACTS FOR LoNDONERS. 

Pt.llllHBS. 
Area 
in 
Acres. 
c 
c.2 
-;;
:;
"' 0"' 
Ha eable 
Annual 
Value,
December, 
1886. 
Total 
Rate, 
1886. 
-----
-
£ 
~~s. d. ;;:--;r.-
Marylebone .... 
St. Pancras . . . . 
120 1,so6 1S4,91016,o331,424.1622 21 9~0 8~-t 8 
120 2,6;2 236,258 24, ;o1 1 ,s81 ,823 2 2 I1 11 ~ o 9~ 4 11 
Lambeth . . . . . . 120 3,9.p 2s3,699 3S,404 1,461,s4o 2 6 2 o o IO 5 4 
St. George, Hanover Sq. 
Islington.. . . . . 
Shoreditch . . . . 
Paddington . . . . 
11o:l 1,119 89,5i3I1,57i l,j40,l!)8 1 10 1 7 o 6~3 11' 
120 3,10; 282,86s 34,0461,6oo,366 1 9~ 1 10~ o 8t4 4 
120 648 126,S91 15,156 638,65; 2 o 2 I o 8 4 9 
jZ 1,2SI 10j,2!8 13,231 1,2j2,<t<>8 I II I 10~ 0 i'4 5 
Bethnal Green . . .. 6o iSS 126,961 16,6o6 397,571 2 8 2 8 o 9 6 1 
St. Mary. Newington . . 72 632 107,8so 13,975 449,457 2 2 2 6 o 11 5 ; 
C:>.mberwell . . . . 84 4,450 186,s93 27,316 986,604 2 I 2 o 1 o IS 1 
St. james, Westminster. 48 162 29,9·P 3,022 694,201 1 9 1 5~ o 8~ 3 II 
Clerkenwell .. .. ;2 380 69,0;6 ],I04 349,6812 9 I II o 8 15 4 
Chelsea . . . . . . 6o ;96 88, 1o1 10,;98 589,364 2 4 2 3 o 9 S 4 
Kensington .. .. 120 2,190 I63,IS120,I711,833,5991 IO 2 oto 7t4 u 
St. Luke, Middlesex .. 48 239 40.849 4,801 290,143 2 10 2 ICJ~ o 8~ u 5 
St. George, Southw:>.rk.. 4i 284 S8 6s2 6,;61 262,426 2 4 2 5 o 10 S 1 

Bermondso:y . . . . 36 626 ll6 6s2 11,083 400,899 2 8 2 4 o 10 s 10 

St. George·in.the-Ea~t.. 36 243 47,1Si s,;8t 182,715 2 6! 2 2 o 9~ S 6 

St. Martin-in-the-Fields. 36 286 17 ,508 1,716 466,55ll 1 6 1 s o 8 13 1 

Mile End Old Town . . 90 6;9 
10).573 
14,5;4 
361,6-ti 2 4 2 S o 9 S 6 


Woolwich . . . . 24 1,126 36,ur>5 4,831 139,;98 2 ' 2 3 o 91S ; 

Rotherhithe .. .. 24 i53 36,024 4,847 205,2502 5 2 2 o 10 5 5 

Hampstead . . . . ;2 2,248 45,452 5,8;3 55i,o;8 2 o z 4 o 9 5 1 

Hammersmith .. .. 1. 

f j1,93910,53b 

480,4172 6 2 5~0 wgs 10 

Fulh:>.m • . . . . . ) 39 4·003 142,900 

5.833 

334,183 2 6 2 7 0 10 5 II 
DISTRICT BOARDS. • 
Whitechapel .. 58 378 

70,435 

7,435 

374.067 2 4~ 2 i 0 9! 5 8~ 
59,920 

6,20S 

682,278 I 10~ I i! 0 8 4 2

Westminster .. Si 81s 

131,23319,781 

722,708 2 i 2 0 ( o{ S i i

Greenwich .. 84 3·426 

210,43430,7481,507,6S9 2 6! 2 6~ 0 10t5 111

Wandsworth .• 81 11,488 

186,462 

27,4j6 

I ,086,586 2 3 I ,10~ 0 8~ 4 9¥

Hackney.. . . Si 3,935 

4S.382 

3,<)62 

382,220 2 2 2 7 0 IO 5 7

St. Giles . . . . 48 245 

35,2S8 

3,154 

330,973 2 S~ I II 0 II 5 3~

Holborn . . . . 49 167 

32,s8; 

2,8o8 

472,003 1 8! I 9 0 9l4 2~

Strand . . . . 4<) 167 

58,543 

8,oo4 

301,381 2 s 2 2! 0 8! s 3~l

Limehouse .. 36 462 

156,510 

20,474 

675,819 2 IO 2 7i 0 IOi 5 6

Poplar . • •• 48 2,335 

28,662 

3,465 

325,o66 2 I I 9! 0 9h 7i

St. Saviour .. 39 203 

63,663 

9.989 
J66,404 2 7 2 5 0 10 s 10

Plumstead •• 37 IO,J94 

53,o65 

8,704 

612,967 2 4l2 6 0 9f 5 8

Lewisham .. 27 6,S44 

11,9S7 

1,524 193,075 2 3~ I 7 0 9 4 H

St. Olave.. . . 28 I24 

• The rate opposite the District Board is the average of the Rates in the parishes within it. 
(From Firth's" Reform of London Government."-Sonnenschein). 
The 41 existing minor municipal authorities, viz.:


The City Corporation (Common Council of 26 Aldermen and 
206 Counoillors elected annually by the wards of the 
City, and Commissioners of Sewers nominated by the 
Common Council). 


FACTS FOR LONDONERS. 

25 larger Vestries, performing municipal functions, one-third 

elected annually by the ratepayers of each parish;

14 District Boards of Works, nominated by the 53 smaller 

Vestries; 
all need to be superseded by a uniform system of directly elected 
district councils ad1ninistering the local affa.irs of area.s fairlyuniform in population, and subject to the control, supervision, and 
audit of the County Council. The existing qualification for vestryman, 
of £40 rateable value (or £25 where five-sixths of the houses 
in the parish are rated at less than £40), should, of course, be abolished, 
and the election held upon the same register, and under the 
same conditions, as that for the County Council. One apparentlyminor reform, of far-reaching importance, cannot be too strongly insisted 
upon. A large part of the inefficiency, stupidity and jobberyof the smaller London vestries has been caused or permitted by the 
absurd custom of allowing the vestry clerkship to be an appanageof some old-fashioned and busy firm of solicitors. The clerk to the 
district council should in all cases be an .independent officer, paid 
to give his whole time to his municipal duties. 

The districts administered by the respective district councils 
should be approximately equalised, and should preferably be those 
of the existiug Parliamentary constituencies, each divided for election 
purposes into about half-a-dozen wards of nearly equal population. 
In order to avoid the harsh inequality of rates now pressing 
heavily on the poorer parishes, nearly all the bare minimum cost of 
the ordinary necessary expenses of local administration, the amount 
being fixed in advance, should be borne from a common fund, raised 
by the County Council rate and allotted among the district councils 
(proportionately to population). In order to secure local economy, 
any excess over this sum might be left to be levied by a local rate; 
and in order to secure efficiency the County Council must have 
power to settle the general principles of administration, and, in case 
of local' default, power itself to perform the action required at the 
expense of the local rate. PAYiiiENT OF ME~IBERS should be established, 
on principle, for all representative bodies, the County Council 
and the district councils as well as others; Lut failing this, shorter 
hours of la.bor and evening meetings should adequaLely enable all 
classes to attend and freely perform their share of public administration. 


Once prov1ded with efficient local machinery, it will be for the 
eiectors themselves to see that it is effectively made use of; and it 
is to be hoped that they will insist on bye-laws being passed providing 
for:-' 

.J:<:vening meetings of the district councils, so as to allow busy

workers to take part in them. 

Complete publicity for all council meetings. 

Complete abolition of all refreshments or hidden perquisites to 

members. 

Direct employment of labor wherever possible. 

Eight hours a day for all public servants. 


FACTS FOR LONDONERS. 

But these are matters which might fairly be left to the electors 
themselves to insist on. The education of Londoners m publicaffairs will be not the least important of the advantages of London 
Municipal Reform. 

POOR LAW REFORM. 

THE reform of the Poor Law and i•ts administration is a national 
rather than a metropolitan question ; but the size of London, the 
extent of its destitution, the want of order or control in its charities, 
hospitals, &c., and of system in its municipal life, make reform 
specially urgent within its boundaries. 

The administration of the Poor Law is committed in London to 
30 BoARDS OF GuARDIANS, acting either for separate parishes (14) 
or for " Unions " (16) of smaller parishes;
THE METROPOLITAN AsYLUMS BoARD. 
The Boards of Guardians are mainly elected by the "ratepayers"
(either annually or triennially, in the month of April, according to 
the particular arrangement in force for each parish) upon a systemof plural voting, each elector having from one to six votes according 
to the rateable value of his house. If, moreover, he is rated for more 
than one house, whether as a "house-farmer " or not, his voting 
power is further multiplied in proportion to the number of his 
houses. Under this system it occasionally happens (as in Bethnal 
Green in April, 1889) that a minority of the large householders prevails 
over the poorer majority. The elections are conducted care· 
lessly, voting-papers being left at each house by a policeman, and 
collected next day, without any safeguards against personation or 
fraud. Very little public interest is aroused ; and only a small pro·
portion of the papers are filled up. 
Yet the Boards of Guardians have to perform functions which are 
of the highest importance to the public, especially to the poorercitizens. They are bound by law to grant relief to every destitute 
applicant ; but it rests with them to decide whether to grant "outdoor 
relief," in money or food; or merely to admit the applicant 
to the workhouse, the workhouse infirmary (for the sick), or the 
"stone-yard " (for imposing task-work on able-bodiecJ men) . These 
institutions, as well as the workhouse schools and the " casual 
wards " (for poor travellers, officially described as tramps and vag·
rants), are completely under their control. Justices of the Peace 
resident in any parish are ex officio members of its Board of Guard· 
ians ; but they seldom attend. The bulk of the work is in the hands 
of the paid officials, and the " Clerk to the Guardians "-frequentlya local solicitor-is often an official pluralist (as in Chelsea) receiv· 
ing huge emoluments, and practically beyond control. 
The Metropolitan Asylums Board is composed of 54 delegates 
elected by the Boards of Guard'ians, with 16 members nominated bythe Local Government Board. It includes 4 women, and no fewer 
than 18 Justices of the Peace. It controls and manages the 4 public 
asylums, 3 " Hospital Ships," 1 Boys' Training Ship, and 6 metro



FACl'S FOR LONDONERS. 

politan hospitals for infectious disease, the annual cost of '"'hich is 
£303,640, recovered from each parish in proportion to rateable value 
of its property, and so ultimately swelling the poor-rate. 

Each Board of Guardians administers relief and collects its rates 
independently of the others ; but the cost of the maintenance of the 
poor inside the workhouse infinna1·ies and ,schools is defrayed hom 
a " Common Poor Fund," and divided among the parishes in proportion 
to the rateable value of their property. With this exception, 
there is no" Equalization of the Poor Rate," which accordingly 
va.ries frow ls. 6d. to 2s. 10d. in the £(see page 14), or even 3s., as 
lately in Holbom. The unions which benefit by the " Common 
Poor Fund," and so would gain by an "Equalization of the Poor 
Rate," are (in order of amount) Holborn, St. George's in the East, 
St. Saviour's Southwark, Bethnal Green, St. Pancras, Sboreditch, 
\Vhitechapel, Poplar, Chelsea, Mile End, Lambeth, St. Olave's, 
Greenwich, Stepney, Woolwich, Marylebone, St. Giles', Camberwell 
and Hackney (p. 302 of C-5526). The amount chargeable to the 
Fund (the already equalized part of the Poor Rate) has risen from 
£540,876 in 1871 to £929,300 in 1886. The richer parishes enjoy 
the ailvantage of a low poor-rate, at t,he same time profiting by the 
cheapness of the labor of the resident in the poor parishes, which 
are made still poorer by the heavy burden of their own unshared 
and unaided poor-rate.

Thus the Poor Law needs abundant reform; but the changeabove all others necessary is in the spirit of its administrators. Instead 
of a harsh and cruel desire to " save the rates" at any cost of 
human suffering, we need a kindly treatment of the sick, the aged,
the children, and those reduced to destitution by accident or misfortune 
; coupled with a scientific and persistent effort temporarily 
to relieve the able-bodied and permanently to remove the causes of 
their mioery, without in any way relaxing the tests against sturdyidleness or vagrancy. Even as regards these latter evils, the abolition 
of their causes rather than the punishment of the offenders 
should constantly be aimed at. 

Meanwhile, certain specific reforms are obviously needed:


(ct ). The children, instead of being herded together in pauperbarracks or crowded in gigantic ophthalmic workhouse schools, need 
to be "boarded out" in families, or allotted in small parties to the 
care of "house-mothers." They should be sent to the ordinarypublic schools, and trained in some handicraft or useful occupation 
by which they can fulfil the duties of good citizenship incumbent 
on them as on others. Sixteen thousand two hundred and sixteen 
children were in metropolitan workhouse schools in 1886-7. Out of 
these only 359 were in Standard VI. l only 221 of these "passed").
The inspector deplores "the bad cla sification of the older workhouses 
; the poor and imperfect fumiture and appliances provided 
for educational purposes; the low salaries given, preventing the 
highest grade of teachers applying for vacant schools; the want of 
technical skill and of the ability to impart practical knowledge on 
the part of industrial trainers ; and the narrow view too frequently 


FAcTs FOR LoNDONERS. 

taken by boards of guardians and managers of utilizing the industry

of the children" (Rep01·t of L ocal Govemment Boanl, C-5526, pp. 

95-97).

Only 3,551 children in all England are "boarded out," about 500 

being from London (ibid, pp. 99 and 198).

(b). The aged poor, ins~ead of being imprisoned in" Bastilles," 

with husband and wife often illegally separated, and always con


demned to a grim lingering out of life, must be humanely provided

for by pensions or almshouses as they may prefer; and be regarded, 

not as semi-crimiual incumbrances, but as receiving honorably the 

willingly given pensions to which lives of hardship, toil and want 

spent in the service of the community have abundantly entitled them. 

(c). The sick, the chronically infirm, and the "industrial martyrs"
of our civilization, suffering from the evergrowiug number of accidents, 
should be treated generously in the public hospitals-no longer to 
be stigmatized as "workhouse infirmaries "-and in convalescent 
homes and asylums, administered by the Public Hospitals Board 
hereafter referred to (p. 22). 

(d). The "temporarily unemployed " should be recognized as a 
necessary incident of our present industrial life. "The modern 
system of industry will not work without some unemployed margin 
-some reserve of labor."* For these it will nearly always be possible 
to find temporary employment in connection with the largequantity of work of every kind constantly being done by the CountyCouncil, Vestries, District Boards, &c., if only there were any real 
desire to cope with the problem. The Local Government Board has 
in vain urged local governing bodies to take this course. The 
Chelsea Vestry t and a few other bodies, have already attempted it 
with marked success. But in order to enable this to be adequatelyextended, it is necessary to insist on :


All public bodies dispensing as far as possible with contractors, 

and becoming direct employers of labor in every branch. 

An " Eight Hours Day " for all public sen·ants. 

(e). For the chronic cases of sturdy vagrancy, idle mendicity, and 
incorrigible laziness, we must have recourse to organised pauperlabor, strictly disciplined and severely supervised. These classes, 
like the criminals, are the " failures" of our civilization ; and whilst 
they must be treated with all just kindness, and offered opportunities 
of earning their subsistence, they must nevertheless be sternlydenied all relief until they are willing to repay it by useful labor. 
The present Poor Law system quite fails to deal with them : even 
individualistic reformers ·urge further public action. "Thoroughinterference on the part of the State with the lives of a small fraction 
of the population would tend to make it possible, ultimately, to 
dispense with any Socialistic interference in the lives of all the 
rest."! And again, we must "open a little the portals of the Poor 

"C. l~ootb , " Life a11d Labor in East Londou " (\Viiiiams and Norgate), p. 15:!. 
t See Report by J. STR.\CHAN, Surveyor. 
tC. Booth, '·Life and L1bor in East London" (Willhtms and Norgate) p. 167. 



FAcTs FOR LoNDONERS. 

Law or its administration, making within its courts a working guild 
under suitable discipline" (ibid, p.168) and eliminate the idle loafers 
from society by making their existence in the ordinary community 
more and more impossible, whilst we on the other hand offer them 
constantly the alternative of the reforming "Labor Colony ", to 
which all incorrigible vagrants and beggars could be committed bythe magistrate for specified terms. 

To effect these reforms the admi,nistration of the Poor Law must 
be brought under democratic control : the existing Boards of Guardians 
and Metropolitan Asylums Board with their electoral anomalies 
should be swept away, and replaced by an elected Board responsiblefor the care of the whole of the aged, the sick, insane and destitute 
of London. As five-twelfths of the Hospital expenditure must inevitably 
be under its management, it would seem best for this work 
to be united with that of the control of London's hospitals; and the 
Hospitals Board (see p. 22) might well become a general "Charities 
Board," formed of elected representatives from each Parliamentaryconstituency on the existing municipal register, charged with the 
whole central administration, and assisted by elected district committees 
for local work. Only by some such system can the existing"Metropolitan Asylums Board be adequately replaced; the burdens 
of the poor-rate equalized; effective democratic control established 
over the welfare of our sick and poorer brethren ; the County Council 
relieved of its burdensome care of lunatic asylums; and London's 
myriad charities, now often hidden, stolen, jobbed and misapplied,
rescued, and the public property of the poor made as secure as the 
private possessions of the rich. 

Notwithstanding social obloquy and rigorous treatment, the number 
of persons driven to seek Poor Law relief is enormous. 

LoNDON PAuPE RS, 1st JANUARY, 1888. 

I 
!!'\-DOOR PAUPERS. 
Estimated 
Population 
in 
middle of 
r887. 
ABLE-BODIED 
AND TH E IR 
CHILDRE N . 
IAdults. -e ... 
" "' c ".; 
~".; -;;
" :>1-;; E :.a ~::;; u 
I 
NoT 
AoLE-BooJ Eo. 
-e ... 
" "' c ".; ~".; -;;
" :>1-;; E :.a""' "' u 
INSANE. 
----I 
-eI ... 
" "' c 
~ "c 
~ri 1 ~ -;; :.a::;; "' u 
" -5 
·= 
"' " ;..,.; 
~~ 
~_g 
.,..: 
c~:!3: 
" "> 
-;; 
0 
f-


M'sex 

Surrey

Kent 

22 

~I 

J4,21),192

-=I 

-

13.40112,393 I soB 49!S 
I 2i4 239 

4,18,3J,130 

2,6r6 
374 
so 

3.040 

ll,$32 

3,32i 

1,154 

16.oq 

I 

10,636! i·323 1,793 2,2j2,9861 4,003 $02 62 
906 1,609 107 13 

-~----


14,528 12,935 2,402'3,03 

I 

40J 796 43, r6 

14i 
42 
-

590 

128, 13,10 

53 4.56 
977 6o,83 

FACTS FOR L oNDO:l'iERS. 

-

-

(Report of J.ocal Government Board, C-5526, pp. 192-202) 

But the relief is not usua,lly given permanently : to obtain the 
number of different individuals who receive relief during a year, we 
must wultiply the daily number by three (Mr. Mulhall," Dictionaryof Statistics," p. 346) or by 3! ("National Income," by DudleyBaxter, p. 87). This gives a pauper class seeking relief in London 
during any one yeftr of about 400,000 persons, or 1 in 11 of the total 
population : 1 in 9 of the wage-earning class. 

LONDON'S HOSPITALS. 

AN energetic attempt is being made to induce the Lo1'ldon wage-

earners to become regular subscribers to the London hospitals.

Opportunely enough, a memorandum on the whole of the metro


politan medical charities has just been published by the Charity

Organization Society (15, Buckingham Street, Strand), which reveals 

some of the waste and confusion engendered by our competitive

individualism even at the sick-bed. 

London's sic!{ are provided for by 11 great hospitals with medical 

schools ; eight smaller general hospitals ; 67 special hospitals (many 

of these unnecessary) ; 26 free dispensaries ; 13 part paying dispen


saries; 34 " provident dispensaries"; 27 workhouse infirmaries and 

sick asylums; 44 poor-law dispensaries; and eight public hospitals 

for infectious diseases. These 

238 SEPARATE INSTITUTIONS 

compete wit~ one another fo-r funds, for patients, for doctors, for 
nurses, and f r students. They are distributed geographically over 
London with ut the least regard to local necessities ; and hardly in 
any single CfLSe is there any co-operation among them. New in-

OUT-DOOR PAUPERS. 

A BLE-BODI ED 
A:-o;:Q THEIR CHILDR EN. 


Adult Males. 

-' ... ~ ' 

U·-UJ C: 

~ ll)Ul


c-= ~ ...

0 ..::c 0 >. 

~0-~ ·{§

:... <U ... 

<U .... "'C<,C 

~ g~ E 

0:: :J o< 

o~ 
~~ 
"0~ 

" 

"u

> 

.~ ~ 

-.;..c:

.,


-o 

I .,; 
-;" ~ 
"0 " ~ 

E 
c 
~ 
c

~ 

~ 

:;;!

:; 

"0 

:.c 

< 
u 

NoT 

I " 

I NSANE. 

=

A BLE-BODIED. 

I 

,;. 

-;" 

'" 

E

-;" 

:0 

~ 

.,; 
<; 

I 

"0 

c 

"

c 

~ 

-;'"" 

~ 

-;'"" 
E

..c: 

::E tl-"u 

I 

~ 

0 

:;

0.; '" 

" 

~ "C~ .~ "~

> 0 

~ 

., ..c: 0. 

·--" 

"0 

" I "0

c "iiQ 
~ 
" .£ ~ 

c 

~ ~ ~?; I u 
:;;! ~ -; ~ 

b.O "0 
~

:.c 0 I

u > !-< 0" 

.,; 

" > 

-~ 
~ 

~ 

c 

~ 

c." 
0 
-;

0 

!-< 

t 

z 

8 I613,330 

594 

364 I,l:\ j I

3I3 

656 I, I65

129 

1,030 

'1.836 6,372 

8,96012,097 
4•i R4ji,OJ2 
3. Ilio 534 

-~


r6,go4 3,663 

2,6) 3,990 I6 64 32,368 

8,jOOI.I$5 

4 

..

r,oo6 I,383 5 .. 15,245

4,076 4I I 

..

2q 363 . . . . 8,699

2,126 342 

-

- 
·


3,8 j0$,jJ6 2 I 64 56,3 I 2 

14,902 r,9o'l 

4

1

75·529 

21-!,346 
IJ,26-t 

IIi,lJ9 


FACTS FOR LONDONERS. 

stitutions are constantly being started, often under very doubtful 
auspices; and many already existing are obviously maintained 
mainly as a means of livelihood for the staff. The number of officials 
employed is returned as 4,359. 

The 2:38 " medical charities " are computed to enjoy an annual 
income of about 

£1,196,471, 
of which ome £±85,502 comes from rates, at least £50,000 from 
property (endowments), at least £100,000 from legacies, about 
£50,000 from the "Hospital Sunday Fund" and "Hospital Saturday 
Fund," probably £50,000 from patients' payments, and some 
£300,000 from subscriptions, donations, the proceeds of bazaars, 
concerts, "fairs," "fetes," and all the thousand and one devices 
invented by officers at their wits' end for funds to maintain the 
17,830 occupied beds (5, 729 remained empty last year from lack of 
money), the 122,0±7 in-patients (one in 40 of the population) and 
the 1,576,905 out-patients of the year. The total expenditure is 
estim~tte<1 at £1,207,749, or about 9d. in the pound on London's 
rateable value (more than a third being already defrayed by rates).
Few persons realize that we are rapidly municipalizing our hospitals.

"It i worthy of remark that during the last 20 years about 
12,000 hospital beds have been provided by the Poor Law authorities 
for the sick poor of the metropolis, a numter far larger than that of 
the total of all metropolitan hospitals put together." (Report of 
Poor Law Inspector, p. 52 of Local Government Board Report,
1887-8, 0-5526). These include 9,639 "occupied beds" in the 
Poor Law Infirmaries and Sick Asylums, and 1,820 in the hospitalsfor infectious disease. The total in the " voluntary hospitals" is 
only 6,±15. Nqr are these mainly or exclusively for paupers.
By an order date<l 7th July, 1887, admission is granted to any person 
affected with fever or small-pox whose removal is advised by 
any duly qualifie<l practitioner (pp. li. and 9 ibid). Under this order 
the magnificent public hospitals of the Metropolitan Asylums Board 
are, in times of epidemic, steadily becoming more and more generally 
used by Londoners. By Sec. 7 of the Diseases Prevention 
(Metropolis) Act, 1883, this is not deemed "parochial relief." The 
:\Ietropolitan Asylums Board (see p. 17) accordingly spent, in 1887, 
£303,6±0 (p. 262 of 0-5526).

One in 12 of London's population will die in one of these institutions: 
this is the annual proportion of deaths in hospital to the total 
deaths (see page 7). Probably four out of five of London's adult 
population use one or more of these so-called "medical charities" 
during their lives. Yet, except in the workhouse infirmaries and the 
hospitals of the Metropolitan Asylums Board, the public have at present 
absolutely no control over the establishment, the property, the 
expenditure, the management, or the extinction of any of these institutions. 
Only three of them render their accounts to any publicauthority. No public superintendence controls their jobbery: no 
public audit checks their waste. There is absolutely no general supervision, 
or even inspection, of these essentially public institutions. 


FACTS FOR LoNDONERS. 

Their property, amounting to at least £2,000,000 of investments 
and perhaps as much more in buildings and plant, is, except in a 
few instances, at the mercy of the governing body and trustees for 
the time being. Their income is expended by boards of directors or 
governors, usually "co-opted," or self-appointed, though nominallyelected by the subscribers. Most of the management really rests 
with the medical staff and the paid officials. 

What is needed is:


Creation of either a Hospitals Committee of the County Council 
or a separately elected Hospitals Board, charged with 
the supervision, inspection, and audit of all London 
medical charities. 

Systematic co-operation among existing institutions. 
Amalgamation of competing and unnecessary institutions, and 
geographical redistribution where necessary. 
Provision of all new hospitals by the public authorities, instearl 
of as private speculations. 

A "grant in aid" from the rates, wherever necessary, accompanied 
by public control. Ultimately, we must insist 
on the full acceptance of the principle of London itself 
collectively undertaking the charge of London's sick. 

Meantime a Royal Commission to enquire into the whole hospital 
system would be the best means of setting reform on foot ; and the 
Loudon County Council should insist on the Government appointing 
one, and take care that it consists of members of democratic sympathies, 
able to get at the truth and not afraid to put an end to the 
barbaric individualism of the existing chaos. 

THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF LONDON. 

AFTER nearly twenty years of hard work done by the School Board, 

London is at present fairly provided with elementary schools. 
Total number of Elementary Schools, Voluntary and Board (1888) 1,040 
Average number of children on the rolls... , 645,5H 

0 

1\~ h 8 (showing an increase or 17.413 over)

,. attendance In marc 18 9 thcaverngPattendanceofMar.1888 508,340 
These.figures include child1·en betu·een the ages of 3 and 13, 
l1elonging to the '' Elementm·y School Class." 

BOARD SCHOOLS ONLY. 
Number of Schools ... 395 
Average number of children between 3 & 13 on the rolls, lil89 -!34,895 


, attendance , 34-2 421 
Number of places provided ... 415;029 
. TEACHINr. STAFF. 
Number of Certificated Teachers: Men :2319 
, , , "\Vomen 4579 

6R98 
Unclassed ex-Pupil Teachers ;)51 
Pupil Teachers 1691 


9,140 
Cost of Teaching Staff in HIS!) .,. £819,098 lOs. Od. 
(Report of School Management Committee, 1888.) 


FACTS FOR LoNDONERs. 

It will be seen that the number of places provided exceeds the 
average attendance by 72,608; but, on the other hand, accommodation 
has to be found for 461 children below the age of three, and 18,539 
above the age of thirteen (19,000 in all), not included in the table. 
Even when ample accommodation has been provided, new schools 
must continue to be built. The annual increase of population is 
estimated at about 60,000, for one-sixth of whom school places must 
be found. One new school a month will hardly suffice. 

It should be added that the estimate of places provided includes a 
number-estimated in 1882 at 50,000-" which are reckoned as 
available, but which, owing to various causes, are of no practical 
use. Among these causes are the following : School places in distlicts 
where there is an excess of School accommodation; unused 
places in Roman Catholic, Jewish, or foreign Schools; unused places 
in Schools where the fees are too high for the generality of parents,
etc." The number of children scheduled in the spring of 1888 as 
belonging to the Elementary School class was 763,680. Of these, 
166,295 were between the ages of three and five. The estimated 
accommodation needed was 610,944. (Report of Statistical Committee, 
1889.)

A comparison of the two tables shews that the Voluntary Schools 
have 210,649 children on the rolls, with an average attendance of 
165,919. The number of places provided i~ Voluntary Schools for 
the year ending March 1889 is not yet calculated ; but the followingfigures for 1888 shew the proportions then obtaining.

Average number on rolls ... 628,801 
Average attendance ... 490,927 
Average number 011 Board School rolls .. . ±20,91± 
Average attendance at Board ~chools :128,403 
Average number on Voluntary School rolls 207,887 
Average attendance at Voluntary Schools 162,522 
.r umber of places provided in Board Schools ±07,63() 

, , , , Voluntary Schools 262,022 
Total11umber of places provided .. . 669,658 
The expenditure on the Board Schools in 1888 was as follows : 

£ $. d. 
Salaries of Teachers ... R0-±,9~3 8 ± 
Books, apparatus and stationery 3R,866 11 0 
Furniture 15,:178 1 1 
\\'ages of school-keepers and cleauer H.1:U 0 .-> 
Rates and rents 64.!)1:) 0 7 
Fuel and Light 21,302 5 3 
Repairs ... :30,51:2 1 1 
Pupil Teachers' Schools ll,HIH 5 -! 
Sundries 2l,OR3 -! 3 

£1,051,!)02 17 -! 
To meet this expenditure there was a total income from the Schools 
of £443,485 14s. sa., made up as follows: £ 3. d. 

Government Grant . .. :llli,l!IX 7 -! 
Schoo-l Fees .. . l:H .llll l 
Sundries (Science and Art Grants, etc.) ... fi.li7 fi :3 

£H:ux;> I± 

x 

(Account of Income and Expenditure, London School lloarcl.) 


,. 


FAc·rs FOR LoNDONERS. 

Each chilc1 therefore averaged 19/7 per grants, and 7/5 per school 
fees, contributing £1 7s. Od. towards the total cost of its education, 
£3 4s. 1c1., lea.ving a lleficit of £1 17s. 1c1. to be borne by the local 
rates. 

The nation thus, by imrerial or local taxation, J:ays £2 16s. 8d. 
out of the £3 4s. ld. spent on rach child's yearly education. 

In collecting the odd 7/5 the head tea.chers each spend from six to 
ten hours n, week at clerical work; manager attend at each school 
once fl, \\'eek and with the head teachers spend from one to two hours 
in remitting fees; out of 341,425 children, 110,759 obtained remission 
in 188H-"D; parents are put to an incalculable amount of trouble 
and annoyance; and an army of 268 visitors is employer1 to e11force 
::tttenda.nc , whose services might be largely dispensed with were it 
not for the payment of fees. (The number of children obtainingremission is taken from the report of the Committee on Free Meals, 
July, 1'll:i9, aud is deri\·ed from the school registers.) 

In a<1<1ition to the abolition of School Fees the following changes 
a.re imperatively needed: 

PROYISION OF FREE MEALS. 

The London School Board last winter appointed a Committee to 
enquire into the existing agencies for the provision of free or cheapmeals to necessitous children. The figure obtained by them as regards 
Board Schools are as follows (only 3 per cent. of the VoluntarySchools have answered enquiries) :-43,843 children attending school 
are in '"'ant of footl. In the year ending March 1889, 7,943 children 
received free breakfasts; 745 paiJ td. and 151 paid zd.; 26,585 
children received free dinners; 4,435 paid 1d.; and 8,567 paid i d. 
Despite this, it is estimated that 24,739 children ''do not obtain 
enough food." These statistics, the best that the School Boanl 
could obtain, are based on estimates framed for each school, an<1 
a.re not absolutely correct. But they probably much understate the 
need for additional sustenance among the poorer children. 

UIPHO\'EME:\'T OF EYE~ING SCHOOLS SYSTEM . 

Evening Classes are held in the Board Schools during the winter 

months. To these, 16,320 pupils were admitted in the 1887 -!:lH 

ession. The weekly average number on the rolls was 9,077, with an 

average attendance of 5,805. The chief reform needed is the re


arrangem.ent of the subjects taught, so as to attract those who desire 

to continue their education : at present the pupils are presented for 

examination in Standards III. to VII. ; and all subjects outside those 

taught in these Standards are " additional." Shorthand, drawing, 

n nd French at least should form part of the regular curriculum. 

The Recreative Classes, carried on by the Recreative Evening Schools 

Associations, and the Advanced Classes held for the South Ken



FACTS FOR LONDONERS. 

sington, and the City and Guilds of London Technical Institute 
Examinations, shoulJ be la.rgely extended, and brought under Boanl 
control. Only 1,165 pupils were in average attendance at these 
cla.sses in the 1887-88 session, 967 being presented for examination. 
About 80,000 chilclren leav~ the London Elementary Schools c\·ery 
year; less than 10,000 of these attend at the Board's E\·eningClasses to continue the very imperfect education they have receiYed. 

GRADING OF SCHOOLS . 

.-i serious difficulty in the way of the more intelligent children ·s 
the small number of scholars in the 7th and ex-7th Stancbrd, a1;J 
the little attention that can be bestowed on them. There are o~1'y 
7 ,3±8 of these children in the School Boards; and it is highly desirable 
that these should be draftell into schools at which speci: l 
attention should be paid to them. The Board has the matter now 
under consideration; and schools in each division are to be marb;•1 
for this work. What is sorely needed is the opening of Second nv 
Schools in which education could be continued, open widJOut chaq..,e 
to all \Yho have passed through the Elementary. The state of 
Secondary, Technical and Evening Education in the Metropolis is a 
\Yeltering chaos of uncoordinated individualism, as to \\"hich even 
statistics are unattainable. 

PUBLIC TRAINING COLLEGES. 

All the existing Training Colleges are denominational, entrance 
being barred by dogmatic tests. There is great need of the establishment 
of an unsectarian Training College for London, under public 
management, so as to bring the training of the teachers into line with 
the teaching in the schools, and increase the supply of properlytrained instructors. 

THE HOUSING OF THE PEOPLE. 

FEw persons realize the extent of the need for the better housingof London's poor. Of the 1,000,000 Londoners estimated by Mr. 
Booth to be in poYerty (see p. 5), practically none are housed as 
well as a prudent man provides for his horse. These 200,000 
families, earning not more than a guinea a week (see p. 5), and that 
often irregularly, pay from 3s. to 7s. per week for filthy slum tenements 
of which a large prop01·tion are absolutely "unfit for habit ltion," 
even according to the lax standards of existing sanitaryofficers.* London needs the rebuilding of at least 400,000 rooms to 
house its poorest citizens, at the minimum of two decent rooms perfamily, not to speak of the ideal of 

THREE HOO~[S AND A SCULLERY, 

which should be our ultimate goal.
How much has been done towards this work? Not a 1'ingle Vestrv 

"' See •· The !lousing-of the Wcrki11g Cl~sseB, ' by J. Theodore D oud. 
(Natiomtl Press Agency; ld.) 


26 FAcTs FOR LoNDONERS. 

ever exercised its puwers of building dwellings. The only public 
body in London which has followed Liverpool, Glasgow, and other 
provincial towns in this matter is the City Corporation, which has 
built blocks in Farringdon Road and Petticoat Lane (MiddlesexStreet). The blocks in Farringdon Road were built with the specialobject of accommodating the persons connected with the City'smarkets. £1,716 was received as rent in 1886-7 (House of Commons 
Return , No. 423 of 1888, p. 38), representing the payment for about 
150 rooms. The other experiment is of greater importance. The 
Commissioners of Sewers of the City of London cleared about 
one acre in Golden Lane and about two acres in Petticoat Lane, 
under the Artisans' Dwellings Acts. The Golden Lane site was 
agreed to be sold to the Regent's Canal City and Docks Railway 
Company. On the Petticoat Lane site the Commissioners haYe 
themselves erected dwellings. In April, 1888, 240 tenements had 
been let and 923 persons were in occupation. (House of Lords 
Return, 1888, 275). The rents received in 1886 were £3,072 (House 
of Commons Return No. 423, p. 14). No other public authority in 
London has yet erected any dwellings. The Trustees of the magnificent 
donation (£500,000, in 1862, 1866, 1869 and 1872) of the late 
George Peabody have done something towards the housing of the 
more regularly employed London workers. At the end of 1887 the 
Trustees had provided 5,014 separate dwellings; 74 of four rooms, 
1, 782 of three rooms, 2,351 of two rooms, and 807 of one room. The 
average rent charged is about 4s. 9d. per dvvelling, or 2s. 2d. perroom, including free use of conveniences of all kinds. The net in-
coma of the fund in 1887 was £24,902, and the fund itself at the end 
of that year amounted to £935,570 (see Report for 1887, in Times, 
28th February, 1888), besides about. £300,000 borrowed from 'the 
Government. 

The County Council has now hesitatingly resolved to build at 
Hughes Fields, Deptford. But there is as yet no sign of resolute 
endeavor on Lhe part of any local authority adequately to cope with 
the great problem. Scarcely yet is it admitted that London has 

; ' any concern in the matter. 

0\·er £1,500,000 was, however, spent by the late MetropolitanBoarrl of Works in compensating the owners of property in 22 areas, 
comprising nearly 59 acres, condemned as unfit for habitation under 
the "Torrens Acts" and "Lord Cross's Acts" (Report of Metropolitan 
Board of Works for 1888, p. 47). Instead of the re-housingof the displaced poor by some public authority, we have had these 
cleared areas let at rents much below the market value to philananthropic 
and other capitalists, who have erected 344 blocks of 
dwellings, accommodating 38,231 persons, ibid, p. 48). To get this 
small number re-housed by private enterprise has, therefore, cost 
th_e people of London a subsidy of over £39 for each person, leaving 
still the ~hole property of the land and buildings in private hands. 

The pnvate capitalists thus subsidized comprise 11 Joint Stock 
Con~p3:nies, in addition to individual speculators. Some of the 
statistics of the companies are given below :



FACTS FOR LoNDONERS. 

Company. 
(illor/gages assumed to be at 4 per cent.) 
-
Artisans, Laborers and General Dwellings 
Company ... .. ... 
Improved Industrial Dwellings Compy. 
National Model Dwellings Company 
Metropolitan Association for Improving 
the Dwellings of the Industrious 
Classes ... . . ... .. . .. 
National Dwellings Society ... ... 
Soho, Clerkenwell and General Industrial 
Dwellings Company .. ... 
East Enrl Dwellings Company ... ... 
Four Cent. Industrial Dwellings Co.... 
Metropolitan Industrial Dwellings Co. 
National Conservative Industrial Dwellings 
Association ... .. . .. . 
South London Dwellings Company ... 
Capital. I Net IncomePer Cent. to Owners. £ Paid. £ 
962,050 5 48.102 
432,720 4t 1\l.472 
550.000 5 27.500 
104,738 4 4.189 
106.363 5 5.318 
19:l,200 5 9,610 
69,053 4 2,762 
45.750 4 1,830 
150.000 2 3.000 
35.000 7 2,450 
55,500 4 ' 2,220 
51,640 4 2,065 
32.000 4 1,280 
8,000 3~ 280 
35.220 
I 
5 1,761 
48,300 4 1,932 
13,600 --
16,175 4 647 
31,300 I 4 1,252 
£2,939,604 4~ 135,670 Total .. . .. ... . . 

(From" Stock Exchange Year Book," 1889.) 
The cost of the dwellings thus erected has accordingly been nearly£3,000,000, on which on an average 4* per cent. interest (besidesoccasional "bonuses" and the Income Tax on dividends) is regularly 
paid. The interest payable by the County Council on such a loan 
would have been about one-third less. 
Provincial towns have long since done what London has feared to 
attempt. In Liverpool the Corporation has cleared upwards of four 
acres, and itself erected five blocks of dwellings containing 322 tenements 
and housing 1,300 persons, at a cost for land and buildings of 
£130,816. 5,230 square yards still remain unbuilt. (House of Lords 
Return, 1888, 275.) 
lu Greenock an area of about 3! acres was cleared, under the 
Artisans' and Laborers' Dwellings Improvements (Scotland) Act, 
1875) in the years 1879-81. Owing to general · depression of the 
value of property in Greenock it was found impossible to sell the land 
thus cleared, and the Local Authority itself erected 197 tenements, 
with the best sanitary arrangements, accommodating 890 persons. 
(House of Lords Return, 1888, 275.-3~d.) 
Glasgow obtained a private Act in 1866, under which the GlasgowImprovement Trust was created. About 80 acres were bought at a 
cost of £1,600,000. A great·part of the property so acquired was 
clearerl, and about 30,000 persons displaced, who were, it is supposed, 
provided for by a rapid increase of speculative building in the outskirts 
of the city. The land so cleared was disposed of partly byselling it to a railway company and to builders who erected on it 
shops, warehouses and middle-class dwellings, and partly by the con



FAcTs FOR LoNDONERS. 

struction of new streets and a public park. At the same time one 
block of tenement houses was erected at a coRt of £3,426. So fa.r 
the Glasgow improvements correspond very closely with those of 
other towns. But between the years 1 70 and 1879 the Glasgow 
Trust tried a very interesting and successful experiment by bmlding 
and opening, under their own management, seven common lodging-
houses (six for men and one for women). From .May, Hi87, to l\Iay,
1888, 637,581 beds were let to men, and 33,986 to women, at 4~d., 
3td., and (in the women's lodging-house) 3d. per night. The net 
revenue from <tll seven was £3,999, representing 4~ per cent. on 
their cost.* These houses are most admirably managed. The 
beds are clean, and in each house there is a comfortable recreation 
room in which lectures are delivered, and music is procluceu by a 
"harmoniumist" whose salary appears regularly among the expenses.
The inmates have ample opportunity for cooking tbeir foou and 
drying their clothes, while cheese, candles, sugar, tea, etc., are sold 
to them by the Corporation at wholesale prices. 

Instead of well-organized municipal lodging-houses, London's poorhave access to 25 "casual wards," accommouating 1,139 men and 
-!66 women and children, the average number of occupants nightlybeing 567 men and 171 women and children. About 4 per cent. of 
these are identified as habitual visitors, and detained four days as 
punishment (Local Government Board Report, C-5526, pp. 236241 
). Those not destitute of twopence resort to London's 995 
"common lodging-houses," accommouating 32,172 mmates, which 
are registered <tnd inspected by the police, who, in 1888, ummoned 
twelve proprietors for breaches of the regulations (C-5761, p. 6). 
These "doss-houses" furnish a miserable "home" to thousands of 
London's citizens. The example of Glasgow shows how municipal 
organisation could, without cost, immensely raise their " standard 
of comfort." 

Up to now the total efforts of a generation of private and philanthropic 
work, aided by the immense virtual Sltbsidy from the 
Metropolitan Board of Works and the magnificent Peabody Fund , 
ha\·e resulted in providing not more than forty or fifty thousand 
rooms, out of the 400,000 requireu (see p. 5). In the meantime 
the overcrowding in the central uistricts has become positively 
intensified. The Royal Commissioners of 1885 say in their Report 
:-" The first witness who was examined, Lord Shaftesbury, 
"expressed the opinion more than once, as the result of nearly"sixty years' experience, that however great the improvement of 
"the condition of the poor in London has been in other respects, the 
"' ovm·crowdin:; has become mon seTions than it ever ~cas.' This 
" opinion was corroborated by witnesses who spoke from their own 
" knowledge of its increase in various parts of the town." 

The re-housing of London's poor can only be adequately dealt 

with by London's collective power. For every penny in the pound 

* Statemeut of the Trustees under the Glasgow Improvemeuts Act, lH6G, 
for the year 1RR7 -HH. 

FAcTs FOR LoNDONERs. 

levierl on the rentals of Loudon's landlords, as many improveddwelli1,g;; could be built (by raising loaus on the rate) as the whole 
eleven ,Joint Stock Companies have proYided since they becian in 
1845 . 

LONDON'S WATER TRIBUTE. 
L::>:\DON is at present supplied with water from the works of igbtcompanies of priYate h;ueholders, who profe to have expended a 
total capital of over £H,OOO,OOO upon them. This amount is, however, 
largely S\\'Ollen by tihe former reckless competition between 
rival companie , by legal and parliamentary charges, and by the 
wasteful extrasagance engendered by abundant. wealth. I t is probable 
that duplicates of the existing works, mains and other plantcould be con tructecl for a much smaller sum-say ten millions 
sterling, which could be raised on the credit of the County Council 
at about 3 per cent. 

A~!OC:\ I' A~D V .\LUE OF SHARE CA I'llAL. 

Amount or 

Share Capital in 
!\arne of 

--~ ~ 

Comr any. 1S72 
i\1 arch or 

June.

I 


£

Chelsea .. 65s,69z 
East London I,625,56oGrand Junction 

797·390Kent 5 I6,460 
Lambeth .. 

755,817 
New River 

I ,670,+28 
Southwark and l 

1,082,500 

Vauxhall I 
\\'est l\1 iddle~ex 

848·731 

Total .. £ 7·955 ·578 

18~3 

Sept. or 
Dec. 


£ 

I,ooo,6oo 

r,695,26o 

1,070,000 

688,907 

1,325,047 

2,or9,958 

r,39o,ooo 

I, 154,54I 

I0,344,3I3 

A~IOUN L' AND VALUE 

Amount of 

Loan Capital in 
Name of 
Com pany. 

1872 1883 

March or Sept. or 

June. Dec. 

£ £

Chelsea 

170,000 ISO, IOO 
Ea,t London 

ry9,6oo 394.440Grand Junction .. 

208,700 265,ooo 

Kent 

42,000 42,000 

La:nbeth 

229,650 158,925 

c::w River 

1,032·453 I ,2]I,5]I

Southwark and I 
Vauxhall 

3 72,890 432,000

J

W.:st Middlc::sex 

30,000 

Total .. £, 2,285,293 12,7I4 ,036 

Estimated \ 'alue of

In-In-

Share Capit..l ou or ah ou t 

crease crease 

perCent. 

5I'9 
4'3 
34'2 
33'4 
75'3 

21'0 

28'4 

36'0 

30'0 

Dec. J I, 
1871. 

£ 

797,633 
I,970,99 1 
I ,284,602 
627,390 
067-452 
3,905,882 

r,172,5I5 

1,704>365 

12,330,!!30 

pc=rDec. 3 I, Cent. 

1883. 

£ 

I ,672,4 75 

109'7 

j,212 5 It! 

6)'0

2,1 z8,3 00 

65'7 

1,665,488 

I 65's 

2,463,6 16 

I84·0 

I 1]'0

8,474,0 00 

2,3so,s09 

roo·s 

2,828,6,_ 

66·o 
24, 795· 53 I IIOI 'I 

-:> 

OF LOAN CAPITAL. 

Estimated Value of

Jncrease Increase 

Loan Capital on or 

or De-or De-

about

crease crease 

per per

Dec. 31, Dec. 31,

Cent. Cent.

1871. 1883. 

-II"i 
+97'6 
+27'0 
-30'8 
+23'2 
£ 
IiO,OOO 
102.000 
2 10,700 
42,000 
230,950 
975.347 
£ 
183, 122 
48I,2I7 
291,300 
42,000 
r36,87s 
I,406,0I3 
+7'7 
+ 371'8 
+ 38'3 
-40'7 
+ 44"2 
+ IS'9 383,269 510,42.'i +33'2 
30,000 
+z8·8 2,{44,266 3,050,952 +47'3 

(from House of Commons Return Ko. 1,;6 of ISSs.) 


FACTS FOR LoNDONERS. 

Since these dates a further increase has taken place. By H. C. 
No. 178, May 1889, the total share capital had grown to £10,805,383, 
worth, at market prices of 31 Dec. 1887, £26,131,750; and the total 
loan capital to £3,160,475, estimated as worth £3,803, 250, giving a 
total saleable value of £29,935,000. 

Even on the inflated outlay, a splendid dividend is paid. The 
companies make an annual profit of more than-a million sterling,
equal to over 7t per cent. on the whole, notwithstanding lavish payand pension to all the superior employes, and handsome fees to 
directors. The ordinary shareholders often get as much as 12k per 
cent., as, for instance, in the case of the New River Company for the 
last five years.* 

RATES PER CENT. OF DrnDEND . 
(Currectcd from "Stock Exchrmf[C Year Book, t88g.") 


Name of Company. 

Chelsea 
East London 
Grand Junction 
Kent .. 
Lambeth 
New River .. 
Southwark and Vauxhall 
West Middlesex 

Rate per cent. of Rate per cent. of 
Dividend in first half-year 1 Dividend in last half-year 
of 1872. of 1888. 

s. d. 
6 0 0 
6 0 0 
8 0 0 
6 2 0 
6 0 0 
7 9 

£ 

8 
5 IO 0 
9 16 7 

s. d. 
9 
£ 

0 0 
7 0 0 
9 0 0 

IO 10 0 
9 

0 0 
12 2 6 
6 0 0 
IO 0 0 

Dl\"IDENDS AND SHARE CAPITAL TAKEN UP BY SHAREHOLDERS 

AT PAR. 

(Forming, as the S tock was saleable at a hig h premium, a large bonns in addition 

to the dividend.<.) 

Name of Company. 

Chelsea 
East London 
Grand Junction 
Kent 
Lambeth 

··' 

New River 
Southwark and Vauxhall .. 
.... I West Middlesex 

I

Total.. .. , 

Amount of 

Dividends. 

£

618,o8o1,256,218 
793,621
§602,170810,861 
2,356,7198j2,8041,2II,013 

£8,sot,486 

Amount of Capital paid up
during the 
Period 1872-83, taken up by
Shareholde sat Par. 


Share. 

-
£ 

341 ,go8 

213,600 
174·712 
557,840 
366,94025 r,898 

295.535 

1-£2,202,433 

Loan. 

£

)),goo150,400 
36,700 

207,8)0225,212 
41,075 

£715,II7 

*The shareholders of the New River Company possess, moreover, anomalous 
electoral privileges. The owner of ever so small a fractional part (providedthat it produces £2 a year) of one of the original shares possesses a vote as 
a freeholder in every county constituency in which the Company owns property, 
or through which its pipes pass. These shares also escape Probate 
Duty, and pay ocly Succession in place of Legacy Duty. One of the original".Adventurer's Shares" was sold by auction in lRti!J for £122,800. The orio-inal 
capital contributed on this share was probably about £100. b 


FACTS FOR LoNDONERS. 

Between 1883 anc11887 a further sum of £518,627 was allotted to 
the shareholders in this \my (H. C., 178 of 1889.) 

These excellent dividends are earned owing to the extraordinarylegal rights possessed by the companies, under their private Acts of 
Parliament, to levy a water-rate in proportion to the rental, without 
reference to the amount of water supplied. As London houses incr2ase 
in number or size (about two per cent. per annum) and those 
already built rise in value (about one per cent. pe:: annum), so the 
water revenue goes up. It rose 58 per cent. (more than half as much 
again) between 1872 and 1883, though the number of houses onlyrose 32 per cent. and the quantity of water delivered per house was 
nearly always less than in 1872. There is no limit to the possible 
t1·ibnte thn5 leviable ttpon London, in return for the supply of an 
article of prime necessity to its inhabitants. The actual figures are 
given below. (House of Commons Return No. 136 of 1885.) 

TABLES SHOWIKG POSITION OF LONDOK 'VATER Co:MPANIES


r8i2-r88J. 

From the R eturn presented to Parliament, H. C. No. 136, rSSs. 

NUMBER OF HOUSES AND WATER RENTALS. 

-

Number of Houses 

Water Hentals from 

or other Buildings 

Houses or other 

Increase 

Increase

supplied in

Name of Company. 

Buildings in

per cent. 

per cent.

...-----'----.... 

-~ 

1872. 188).

1872


-

-

-

£ I £

Chelsea .. .. .. 

46'1

70,C)63 

103,704

27·949 32,430 16·o 

East London .. .. 

104,637 141,738 35'5 

s6·s

152,655 

238,939 

6z ·8

Grand Junction .. .. 

150,015

33·500 46·517 38·9 92,168 

Kent .. .. .. 

3CJ,425 . 58,7!l4 49' 1 47·594 

67'9

79.927 

Lambeth .. .. .. 

87'0

48.551l 75,623 55'7 tl9,551 1 167,455 

New River .. .. .. 

I20,662 I40,353 

412,01)0 

so 2

16·3 274·3ll6 

Southwark and Vauxhall.. 

79,075 IOO,!l54 

179.528 

73'9

27'5 I103,215

West Middlesex .. .. 

43'3 Ilj,745

43·930 62 950 

I73·399 

47'3 

-~


Total .. .. .. 

497,736 659.249 

32'4 948.277 

58'7

' ·505.05 i 

AYER.\GE D "\ILY Sl' PPLY Ol' "'.\TER F01{ DO:I!ESTIC PL' RPOSES 
'10 EACH HOUSE. 

Name of Company. 

Chelsea 

East Londo; • 

Grand Junction 

Kent.. .. 
Lambeth .. 

New River 

Southwark a~·d Va~~hall :: 
West Middlesex 

Number of Gallons. 

In 1872. In 1883. 

252 246 
160 205 
279 2)8135 134 
I85 1j 3 
166 167 
Ij"l I68 
.. I 1j8 161 

Increase or 
Decrease i11 
Gallous. 


-6 

+ 45 
-4I 

-I 

-12 

I

+ 

-3 

-Ij 


3:3 FACTS FOR L ONDO:NERS. 
In 1tlt:l7 the uuJJlbcr of houses supplied had grown to 729,162, and 
the \mter renktb to tl,G:.ll,Gitl (H. U., 178 of 1889), so that, whilst 
the number of hou~e~ supplied had in 15 years risen 46 per cent., 
the rental received had ri::,en 71 per cent. 'l'he average payment perhouse rose from £1 18s. Od. to £:2 4s. 5c1., whilst the quantity of 
water supplied to each house has, on the whDle, positively decreased. 

The result is shown in the growing profits of the Companies. 

P .\H'J ICL"LAllS FOR THC: YEAI1 ENDED 31 T D ECDIBE!l, 1HH7. 

(!1clarn No. .J.J H'!f Ilvusc of Commons.) 

Nam" of 
Company. 
Capi1al 
Expend1ture.
£ 
'l'oLal 
Receipt.
£ 
Toial Surplu; ou 
Expenditure. watersupply£ t 
:Xew River.................. :l,49:l,:21ti 
East London ............... :2 ,:~ 19, :117 
South wark and Yauxhall 2,00!J,:2i)D 
Lun l.Jeth..................... 1,6.J.!J,!J:Hi 
.J.57,G!JO 
:251 ,1:)!) 
l!Jl !JHG 
;lQO:Dl9 
Hi!J ,.)tili 
105,%0 
H4,:275 
70,G0:2 
:2Hti.IU 
J.J.,j,J!l!) 
107,711 
1:lU,:l17 
G muLl Junction............ 1,.J.70,HGti 
\\'est Middlesex ......... 1,U5,li~l.J. 
173,H5 
~09,5~1 
(i3,5!JH 
7H,l:.!:2 
1OD,.H7 
J;JI,:Hl!J 
Chelsea ..................... 1,1 DO,:H/1 
K ent ......... ......... ... ... 7Gl,7H.) 
12:3,:26;)
l18,.i!ll 
:l!l,8L)
:l7,01:2 
H:U-.->0 
81 ,.->79 
Total. ........... l+,HU,.J.:l.J. 1,7:2G,27ti ti.J.H,!J.)O 1,077.:l:2ti 

The water supplied is, moreover, often of doubtful quality. Five 
~ompanies derive it wholly or partially from the River Thames ; the 
two largest mainly from the River Lea; and only one (Kent) from 
deep wells. As the population in these river valleys increases, and 
as the extensive use of manures on the land becomes more general, 
the sources of supply become steadily more polluted. London must, 
€re long, imitate Glasgow, Liverpool, and Manchester in seeking a 
supply of water from some lonely lake. We want an aqueduct from 

l the Welsh hills, to lay on a constant supply of pure soft water. But 
the existing "water lords " will not willingly see their polluted supply 
made obsolete.* 

The necessity for their supersession by a public authority is ad


'\nitted; and as long ago as 1879 the Conservative Government decided 
upon this course. The price proposed to be paid (£33,118,000). 
was, however, so outrageous that the Government was obliged, by the 
public outcry, to abandon the scheme. After ten more years' extortion, 
the companies would now, no doubt, demand even heavier 
terms than in 1879. 

The water companies possess, however, no legal monopoly. In 
the past, indeed, active rivalry frequently existed between them ; 
and even now two companies, in seYeral instances, supply the same 
.area. It is quite open to the County Council to obtain Parliamentary 
powers to construct a competing supply; and the defunct 

* "Farnb;un, Gnildford and "'Vokiug still deliver untreated sewage into 
feeders of the river Thames. Staiues coutinues to pollute the maiu stream . 
. . . Instances of pollnlio" of the river Lea are not wanting" (p. 137, Local 
-Goverument Report, 1 HH7 -H, C-:i,f>:26). 

FACTS FOR LONDONERS. 33 

Metropolitan Board of Works had fully decided to take this step. 
The London County Council should promptly seek power to construct 
a new supply, and, at the same time, to arrange to take over (
the existing service at a fair price. There being no legal monopoly, 
the shareholders can have no" vested interest" in the present excessive 
dividends. It is accordingly quite unnecessary to offer them 
anything more than the actual value of their mains and other street 
plant. Even if they were reimbursed their whole extravagant outlay(£14,140,434), the interest payable by the County Council on a loan 
of this amount would not exceed £425,000, or £650,000 less than is 
now paid to the share and bondholders, irrespective of the saving likely 
to accrue from unification of management. This amount is equal to 
sixpence in the pound of London's rates, and would amply suffice to 
provide any improved service required, as well as afford a useful surplus 
towards the cost of London government. The metropolis should 
no longer lag behind nearly every important provincial town, in permitting 
its water supply to remain in private hands. 

With a municipal water supply, the present survivals of the evil 
cistern arrangement must disappear, and a " constant supply" be 
made universal. The present statistics on this point are as follows : 

NUMBER OF HOUSES SUPPLIED, AND PROPORTION OF THE~£, WITH 

"CONSTANT SUPPLY." 

_

.. 

Constant Supply. Number of Houses. Per


centage 

1-----,-----,----1----,---------,,-----lof Houses Average Daily Total 

on Supply for

NAME OF 

Increase Increase Constant Domesuc Purposes. 

COMPANY. 

1886. 1887. dunng 1886. 1887. during Supply on

I

31st Dec. 31st Dec. the 31st Dec. 31st Dec. the JISt Dec. I---~--Year. 
Year. I887. PGa~~~~e. PGal~~:d· 
-----:----------------


1

Chelsea . . 5,160 5,961 801 34,251 34,435 184 17 233 29·5G 
East London .. 1137,238137,859 621 15G,sl!8 160,252 3,6G4 86 190 25·43 
Grandjunction· 40,493 41,581 1,o8l! 52,794 53,831 1,037 7i 251 27'73 
Kent.. .. 35,336 37,684 2,348 68, 136 70,119 1,983 so 140 23·42 
Lambeth .. 40,333 43,671! 3,345 84,406 86,418 2,012 51 170 24·40 
New River .. 42,458 51,668 9,210148,054149,457 1,403 35 161 2r·sr 
~~~t~:~~tn} 25,180 33.389 8,209107,191 ro8,j41 1,550 31 lj6 23'73 
WestMiddlesex 20,493 23,256 2,763 68,486 69,908 1,422 33 173 23·18 

Totals .. 1346,691 375,076 28,385 719,906 733,161 13,255---5-1--r8o 24·29 

The existing" water-rate" (4 per cent. on the rateable value, and 
upwards) Inight continue to be levied as part of the County Council 
rate; but there is no reason why any special charge should be made 
for water, any more than for roads, drainage, police or other services 
of public utility. We can at least afford "Communism in water." 


FACTs FOR LoNDONERS. 

THE GAS OF LONDON. 

LoNDON's gas supply has now fallen, by successive amalgamations, 
into the hands of three colossal companies (in 1855 there were 20),
whose capital outl11,y, including past competitive waste and lawyers'bills, exceeds £13,650,000. On this amount they manage to obtain 
a handsome profit, the annual surplus being over 

£1,500,000, 

or over eleven per cent. So abundant, indeed, is the profit. that 
huge salaries and pensions are paid, and unnecessary renewals 
executed, merely to avoid returning a larger surplus. For, unlike 
the water companies, our gas proprietors are "limited" by Act of 
Parliament as to their dividends, according to a sliding scale (the 
largest company paid 12~ per cent. in 1887), and any excess is now 
partially devoted to a reduction in the price of gas. The largest 
company now charges 2/8 per 1,000 feet, as against 5/-in 1874. This 
boon we owe to that veteran reformer, Mr. James Beal. 

Here again there is no legal monopoly ; and the County Council 
can obtain Parliamentary powers to construct a competing supply, 
unless the companies consent to transfer their works on equitable 
terms. These works could undoubtedly now be constructed for much 
less than the total capital outlay of £13,654,237 ; but, assuming the 
whole of this amount to be reimbursed to the shareholders, the interest 
payable by the Council would only be £400,000 a year, as comparedwith over £1,500,000 now paid to the share and bond holders. The 
resulting profit of £1,100,000 annually would cover the whole net. 
expenditure of the Loudon School Board. 

One hundred and sixty-eight different towns and villages in the 
United Kingdom already own their own gasworks, and supply gas. 
without the intervention of any middleman, to 1,011,139 consumers, 
or nearly 47 per cent. of the whole. They make an aggregate net. 
profit of £439,467 (after paying interest on the loans incurred); and 
this amount is devoted mainly to local improvements.* 

Manchester, supplying gas at 2s. 8d. per one thousand feet, made 
£49,786 net profit in 1887, after paying £56,286 interest on ga.s loans. 
Why should not London do the same, and ensure, at the same time, 
the fair treatment of London's ten thousand gas stokers, recently 
driven into actual revolt against their overwork'? 

Particulars for the year ended 31 December, 18H7 (Return .No. 11\J to the· 
House of Commons. April, 1888. Price :ltd.). 
Capital 'l'otal 'L'otal .l!:xpen


Year's

Name of Company. 

Surplus.

Outlay. Heceipts. I diture. 

-----------------;----~----£ ----£--


£ 
Gas Light and Coke ....... .. 

1,172,f\90 
South Metropolitan ...... ... 

10,236,325 3. 194.776 I2,022,086

2.611.851 858,669 583.151 
275,518 
Commercial ............. .. 

806,061 300,279 211,038 

R9,241 

'rnt.lll .. ... .. . 

13,654,237 4.353.724 2.816,275

1 

1.537,449 

*.See Return No. :\.J.tl to House of Conlll.on~. August, lHH~. Pric~ 4td. 


FAcTs FOR LoNDONERs. 

THE TRAMWAYS OF LONDON. 
THE 122 miles of tramways in London are in the hands of one 
large and ten smaller companies, whose aggregate capital, swollen, 
as usual, by legal and Parliamentary expenses, amounts, as stated 
in the table below, to 
THREE AND A THIRD MILLIONS STERLING. 
Their receipts exceed the working expenses by about £185,000 annually, 
or more than 54-per cent. on their nominal capital, which 
goes to maintain the body of eight or ten thousand share and debenture 
holders who are at present permitted to derive a tribute from 
London's need of locomotive facilities. The shareholders of the 
largest company, owning one-third of the whole of the lines (NorthMetropolitan), get a dividend of between 9 and 10 per cent. per 
annum on their shares. 

PARTICULARS FOR YEAR ENDED 3oth JUNE, 1888. 
House of Commons Return, No. 347 of 1888. 



Name of Company with date of 

Length Paid-up 

Total 

Total 

Surplus.

first Act. 

open. Capital. 

Hecetpts. 

Expenses. 

-£-

Mls. Chs. 


£ 

£

£

North Metropolitan (1869) .. 

40 24 1,201,225 

252,223

345,881 

93.6s8 

London (1869) .. .. .. 

19 so 6xo,ooo 

266,502 

2Q9,911 

s6,591London Street (1870) .. .. 

15,!!14 
South London (1879) .. .. 

II 79 357,000 

94,129

109,943 

!!,822 
West Metropolitan (1873) .. 

12 j2 362,747 

6I,935

j0,757

8 

202,427 

21,240 

4.489 
North London ( 1879) 
25.729

59 

2,489Southwark and Deptford (1879) 

12,947

'78.525

9 73 

'5·436 

4 j2 

20,626 

2,892 
London Southern (1882) .. 

162,389 

23,518

6o 

I 12,500 

352 loss 
Highgate Hill (1882) .. .. 

14,051

13,699

5 

576 loss 
Harrow Rd. Paddington (1886) 

60,407 

4,075

--57 

3.499 
No return

2 41 

rendered'

I

Woolwich and South East London 
(188o) .. .. 

I 

12,858 

10,900 

1,958

4 7i 69,239 

887,822

122 24 13.316,459 

7o2,~lx85,785 

How this dividend is obtained is known to all men. The 4000 
tramway drivers, conductors, horsekeepers and laborers, working 
London's 940 licensed tramcars (C-5,761, p. 9), are among the 
hardest worked, most cruelly treated, and worst paid of London's 
wage slaves. Sixteen hours' work for 4s. wage is no uncommon day'srecord ; whilst Sundays or other holidays are known to t.hem only 
as times of extra traffic. Nor is it possible to remedy this " white 
slavery" whilst the tramways remain in private hands. Mrs. Reaneyand other well-known philanthropists have in vain used every mode 
of appeal to the consciences of the shareholders. The pulpit and the 
press equally fail to induce them to forego even a quarter per cent. 
of dividend in order to improve the condition of the servants bywhose toil they live. 

But why should London leave its most important lines of internal 
communication in private hands, to be used as a source of privatetribute, wrung {rom the oppression of the workers? In thirty-
one provincial municipalities and urban districts of Great Britain, 


FAcTs FOR LoNDONERs. 

the local authority itself owns the local tramways (see House of 
Commons Return, No. 347, 1888). Most of these corporations lease 
out the lines to exploiting companies; but they can put what 
conditions they please in the leases ; and if the tram servants of 
Liverpool, Glasgow or Birmingham are oppressed, the remedy is in 
the hands of the municipal electors. But one corporation, at any 
rate, does not shrink from the 

DIRECT ORGANIZATION OF LAHOR, 
and gives no opportunity to the middleman. The Huddersfield 
Town Council obtained statutory power in 1882 (45 & 46 Vic. c. 236) 
to work its own tramways; and has done so with marked success.* 
The Liverpool Corporation obtained similar statutory power in 1889, 
but has not yet taken over its lines. The London County Council 
already owns and works a (free) steam-ferry at Woolwich, served by 
two steamboats lit by electricity. (Report of Metropolitan Board of 
Works, 1888.)
London will soon have an unparalleled opportunity in the matter. 
The tramway companies only received their concessions on condition 
that the local authority" should have power to take over the whole 
concern at the expiration of 21 years from the time when the promoters 
were empowered to construct the line in each case, upon 
payment only of the actual value of the stock and plant (33 and 34 
Vic. cap. 78, sec. 43). The first companies complete this period, as 
regards part of their lines, in 1891 ; and it is time that the Council 
began to consider the matter. Only a portion of the lines could be compulsorily 
taken over at a time, as the 21 years' period expires at different 
dates for different lengths of line. But the County Council, first 
imitating Huddersfield and Liverpool in obtaining statutory power 
to work its own lines, could easily negotiate with the companies.
Assuming that as much as £2,500,000 had eventually to be paid 
to acquire the whole lines, the interest on this addition to the 
Council's debt would only be some £75,000 a year, as compared with 
£185,000 now paid to the share and bond holders, irrespective of the 
saving caused by unification of management of the eleven competing 
undertakings. This difference of £110,000 represents nearly a pennyin the pound on the London rates. Placed at the disposal of the 
County Council, it might mean a reduction of the hours of the 
labor of our" tram slaves" to a maximum of eight per day. 

LONDON'S MARKETS. 
FoR market accommodation the greatest city in the world has to 
·depend on two unrepresentative and sectional public authorities, 
three philanthropists, and two private monopolists, feebly supplemented 
by a few insignificant so-called "street markets." The CityCorporation provides and controls eight markets, through which 

~ ~o absurdly jealous was Parliament of this mild extension of municipal 
.achv1ty that a .clau~e was inserted in the Act requiring the Town Council to 
lease out the lines 1f a contractor offered what the Board of Trade mi~ht deem 
.a fair per centage on cost. " 


FACTS FOR LONDONERS. 

passes practically the whole meat and poultry supply, and nearly all 
the fish. The " Trustees of the Borough Market," appointed by the 
Vestry of St. Saviour, Southwark, obtain a large income from London's 
main potato market. The Baroness Burdett-Coutts and Mr. Samuel 
Plimsoll have provided markets at Bethnal Green and Walworth 
respectively. But the Duke of Bedford is still allowed to monopolizethe market tolls on London's chief vegetable, fruit and flower market 
at Covent Garden (established 1661), whilst Sir Julian Goldsmid, 

M.P. (with the Scott family), is the "proprietor" of SpitalfieldsMarket (established 1682). Both these proprietors enjoy legal power 
to prevent auy other market being established within seven miles if 
it diminishes their profits ; and both derive their "rights" from 
charters of King Charles II. 
The London Riverside Fish Company (Limited) has an abortive 
attempt at a fish market at Shadwell; and the Great Northern 
Company Railway runs a potato "depot" at King's Cross. The 
Whitechapel and Cumberland (Osnaburgh Street) Hay Markets are 
dwindling remnants; Oxford Market, on Lord Portman's estate, has 
almost disappeared; whilst Newport Market and Clare Market are 
little more than squalid historical relics.* For decent market 
accommodation we must go to Leeds or Bradford or to the Paris 
"Hailes." 

Nevertheless, nearly four millions sterling has probably been 
already expended in attempting to supply London with markets ; 
and at least £275,000 is annually levied for market tolls, dues, rents, 
stallages, fees, &c., upon London's food supply. The cost of carrying 
on the markets is much less than half that amount ; and the 
balance. yields about four per cent. on the total capital outlay.

The Corporation of the City is the largest owner of London's market 
property, levying an annual market revenue of about £217,000, 
against an expenditure of some £95,000 and a payment of £96,000 
for interest on market debt. The parish of St. Saviour, Southwark, 
absorbs a net annual income of over £7,000 from the Borough Market, 
which is virtually a subsidy levied on London's potato supply in 
aid of the local rates, and so of the local landlords. 

Out of the total, moreover, the Duke of Bedford draws at least 
fifteen thousand pounds a year from Covent Garden; and Sir Julian 
Goldsmid, M.P., a clear five thousand pounds a year net rental from 
his monopoly of the right to hold a market in Spital Square.

These monopoly rights are derived, not from any express charter 
or enactment, but by an old inference of the common law. What 
Charles II. gave to the Duke of Bedford's ancestor and Sir Julian 
Goldsmid's predecessor was merely the permission to hold a market: 
it is the lawyers who have invented the doctrine that such a per


*Many other "markets " in London have gradually disappeared. In the 
City there were Eastcheap. " \Vestcheap" (Cheapside), Bartholomew, Queenhithe. 
the "Stocks,'' the Fleet, Newgate, Honey Lane and others. In other 
parts of London, the "Haymarket," !\layfair, Hungerford, Mortimer, and the 
Bloomsbury Manorial Market are instances. 


FAc·rs FOR LoNDONERS. 

mission implies the prohibition of competing markets within about 
six miles and two-thirds (see the latest case, Great Eastern Railway 
verszts Horner, in which the proposed Stratford Market was stopped 
by the owners and lessee of Spitalfields Market). Now, whatever 
our respect for "private property ", no man can possess a vested 
interest in the continuance of a bad law; and no farthing of compensation 
must be paid for the extinction of this market monopoly. 

PARTICULARS OF LONDON'S MARKETS. 

(See evidence in First Report of Royal Commissio" Oil Market Rights atld Tolls, 
Vol. II., c.-5550-1. Price 3s. 4d.) 

Annual

Estimated 

Expenditure.

Annual

Capital Out-

Owner.

Market. 

Receipts.

lay (includ


In'st.on

On

ing Land). 

Markets. 

Debt. 

-

f, 

f,

f, 

f,

82,952

City Corporation 

1,384,000

London Central Meat, &c. 23,848 

45·283 
(Opened 1875)
London Central Fish, &c. 

6,oo6

Do. 

390,000 

3,905 

13.339 
(Opened 1886)
Farringdon .. .. .. 

1,302 

. . 

Do. 

150,000 

2,099 

.. 

..

Do. 

64

Smithfield Hay .. .. 

195 

Do. 

16,842 
lington) .. .. 

32,472 

21,59!!

Metropolitan Cattle (Is504,842 


" 

2,8o6

Do. 

150,400

LeadenhaII .. .. .. 

7·768 

3·552 
Billingsgate .. .. 

I0,8Ii

Do. 

448,250 

27,473 

9,405 
Foreign Cattle (Deptford), 

58,801 

Do. 

i,8o3 
(Opened 1869) 

30·544

35' ·500 

( 

Total, 

City Markets .. f, 

94.884 

96,224

217·766

3,378.992 

8,ooo

Parochial Trus


II,438 

4• li I

Borough .. .. .. 

" 

tees (St. Saviour's, 
Southwark) 


Public Markets, f, 

229,204 

96,224

Total, 

3.386,992 

99.055 
----..----


IO,II6 

.. 
Spitalfields (1682)" .. 

Duke of Bedford 

227,0oo• 

25,300

Covent Garden (1661) .. 

..

? 

18,ooot

Sir Julian Gold


5·500 

smid, M.P., & 
the Scott family: 
leased to 
Mr. Robert 
Horner at 
£,5,000 a year

Shadwell Fish (Opened 

2,000 

London River


2,000 

..

87,220 

side Fish Market 
Company,
Limited 

Columbia .. .. .. Baroness 

1885) 

?

? 

..

? 

Burdett·Coutts 
South London .. .. Samuel Plimsoll 


?

? 

? 

.. 

ll6,6i I 

96,224

3,701,212 

274.504
f, 

• As estimated by the Duke's Agent, excluding the valu• of the land. 
t As esttmated by the Lessee, including the increase derived from enlargement, &c. 

FAcTs FOR LoNDONERs. 

What London needs is the creation of a central " market authority," 
charged with the erection, supervision and control of suitable 
markets wherever needed. The County Council appears to be the 
authority best suited for this work. The sectional jealousies and 
private interests which hinder the growth of local fish markets, stopthe enlargement of the Borough :Yiarket, cramp Covent Garden, and 
obstruct the creation of new East End markets, must be mergedinone broad, central control. 

No tax on London's food supply should be permitted-marketdues should be levyable only by the public market authorities, and 
be limited strictly to the amount necessary for market expenses.
Concentration in wholesale markets needs to be supplemented bylocal distribution of retail markets. The huge metropolis needs not 
only good central, but also abundant local, distributing agencies. 

THE RIVER AND THE DOCKS. 

THE careless individualism which allowed the control of London's 
riverside accommodation to pass uncontrolled into private hands has 
brought its own punishment. " The Docks " have as their productthe casual dock-laborer of the East End ; and the persistent refusal 
of the gigantic dock companies to take any steps to organize this 
labor or to systematize its employment is the despair of every East 
End philanthropist. "The Docks " offer a potent attraction to the 
shiftless casual. No questions are asked; no "character" is needed; 
habits of decent regular work are rather in the way than otherwise. 
The ever-present chance of a job of this kind furnishes a perpetualaddition of strength to the temptations whereby industrial character 
is lost. 

The London "Docks" are now, by successive amalgamations, in 
the hands of four huge companies (the largest two of which have 
further combined under a Joint Committee), having an aggregatenominal capital of over twenty million pounds sterling. Particulars 
of this capital are given below; and it will be seen that althoughthe companies have been competing ruinously among each other, 
and with the wharfingers, a net revenue of over £550,000 is yielded 
annually, being about 2-3'-per cent. on the whole nominal capital. 
It is to save this income hom jeopardy that the directors refuse 
every request and neglect every suggestion made to them to diminish 
the evil caused by their manner of employment.

The scandal of the Docks is not so much the low wages to be earned 
as the uncertain nature of the employment. In order to avoid the 
expense of a permanent staff, labor is engaged for an hour or two at a 
time, and left to loaf and starve when not wanted. The Dock Companies 
recognise absolutely no duties towards those they employ; and 
a cruel system of sub-contracting intensifies the economic rigor and 
petty tyranny of the arrangement. The "Joint Committee" of the 
two main companies is now probably the largest individual employer 
of labor in London, and there can be no doubt that, for magnitude of 
evil effect, this chartered industrial Leviathan is the worst. 


F AcTs FOR L oNDONERS. 

Pay-

Income to 

Dock 

ing per

Capital. 

Owners.

Companies. 

cent. 

London and 

Debentures

£ r,6r4,o2o 

£64.560

4

St. Katharine. 

1,7511, 3oo 

Stock 

70,332

4

" 

1,200,000 

Preference 

54,000

4~

" 

420,000 

r8,9oo

4~

" " 

Ordinary ,. 

I

s. 756,697 
57·567 

-----£ro,749,017 

---£ 265,359 

East and 

Mortgage Loans} 

13,381

334.535 

4

West India. 

Advances

625,337 

25,013

Debenture Bonds

764,400 

30,576 

4 

r,9o6,ooo 

Stock 

76,240

4

Ordi~ary ,. 

-

-

2,385-500 

---145,210

----6,015,i72

Mill wall 

0 0 

Debenture Stock

448.507 
17,940

4

Preference

58,no 

2,938

5

" 

250.000 
II,250

4~

" " 

,,

490,000 

24,500

5

" 

Ordinary 

23,988

599-700 

4

" 

(Average.) 

---8o,6r6

-----1,8+6,977

Surrey 

140,000 

Debenture Stock 

6,300

4~

Commercial.. 

Preference

348,ooo 

17,400

5

" 

154,000 

6 

92,40

" " 

Ordinary 

6

904,814 

57,888

" 

r,6o6,814 

---90,828 

£2o,2r8,58o 

£ 582,or3

I 

. (Compiled from " Stock Exchange Year Book," t88g: the East and West India Dock Compan.y,

m t888, suspended temporarily the payment of their interest). 

THE NUMBER AND GRADES OF MEN EMPLOYED (OUT-DOOR STAFF) 
BY EACH OF THE THREE EAST END DOCK COMPANIES 
ARE AS FOLLOWS :


Foremen, &c... 00 00 00 00 Police .. .. .. .. .. 
Artisans and Permanent Labourer~. .. 
London & East &St. West IndiaKatharine 
Docks. Docks. 
-
400 457}100 114 
570 247 
I 
Millwall I Total.Docks. 
I---
I 300 
--300 
I 2,188 
I 
500 
-
Boo I 6,855 
1,100 I 9,043 
300 I 3,fl88 --590 
I 5,899 
Total regularly employed .. .. .. 
-------Irregulars 
: preferred for employment 
("Ticket" men or " Royals") .. 
Others (maximum employed) .. .. 
Total of irregularly employed .. .. 
Maximum employed .. 00 00 
Minimum employed .. .. .. .. 
Average employed .. 00 .. 
1,070 818 
450 700 }3,250 1,655 
3,700 2.355 -
4.;;o 3,1i3 
2,170 1,418 
3,270 I 2,129 

Compiled from C. Booth's '' Life and Labour in East London,'' p. tgo, the figures in italics being 
added as conjectural estimates. 


FAcTs FOR LoNDONERS. 41 

These statistics (which do not include the Surrey Commercial 
Docks, employing probably 1500 men) are much below the estimate 
formed in 1886 by the Mansion House Relief Committee. 

"The total number of daily applican.ts for casual labor at all the 
(London) docks may be roughly put down at 20,000. . . there 
would be from 7,000 to 8,000 men who, having no regular employment, 
daily apply, and apply in vain, for such work" ("MansionHouse Relief Committee Report," 1886, p. 7). Assuming, however, 
that those who apply in vain for work at 4d. per hour do not exceed" 
on an aveTage, 3,000, rising to a maximum of 5,000, the influence of 
this perpetual lottery is unquestionably evil. "In truth, the occasional 
employment of this class of labor by the docks, waterside and 
other East End industries is a gigantic system of out-door relief" 

(p. 202, Booth's "Life and Labor in East London"). It creates a 
demoralized and vicious " leisure class.'·' " I venture to think," saysMiss Beatrice Potter, " that the existence and, I fear, the growth of 
this leisure class in our great cities, notably in London, is the gravestproblem of the future" (ibid, p. 204). " The conscience of the country 
was awakened to the iniquity of allowing the whole factory population 
to be deteriorated and brutalized by overstrain and absence of 
all moral and sanitary regulations. Why should we suffer the greaterevil of a system of employment which discourages honest and persistent 
·work, and favors the growth of a demoralized and demoralizingclass of bad workers and evil livers ?" (ibid, p. 206). 
This "greater evil" is perpetuated for the sake of the dividends 
of the dock shareholders. To organize permanent employment for 
the average 3,000 excluded would cost, at most, £150,000 a year 
out of the £550,000 annually taken in dividends, without deductingwhat value the extra labor thus employed produced. No bodr 
of shareholders will make this sacrifice, or any part of it ; but 
why should not London take over the control and management \ 
of its own docks? The Clyde, the Mersey, the Tyne, the Wear, 
the Severn aRd the A von are in the hands of representative public 
authorities; and Liverpool, Glasgow, Dublin, Bristol, Svvansea, as 
well as most other great ports, have their docks free from private 
control. 

There is already a public authority for the River. The "Thames 
Conservancy Board," formed by 21 and 22 Vic. , c. 104, and 27 and 28 
Vic., c. 113, has jurisdiction oYer the Thames from Cricklade to Yantlet 
Creek, and consists of 23 members nominated by the Corporationof London, the Trinity House, the Lord High Admiral, the Privy 
Counc~l, the Board of Trade, and the ovvners of ships, river steamers, 
lighters, tugs, docks, and wharves. One party only seems unrepresented 
on this queerly composed body governing London's river, i.e., 
the people of London. It raised, in 1886-7, £85,530; spent £75,850; 
and owed £102,400 (H. C., 431, 1889, p. 39). 

The substitution for the ConserYancy Board of either a Committee 
of the County Council or a representative " Dock and River Trust," 
with power to take over the property of the foUl" great companies,
and levy dues adequn.te to cover all its expenses, appears to be the 



42 FACTS FOR LoNoo~ERs. 

best practicable means of organizing the demoralized dock laborers, 
and so healing the spreading social ulcer of the East End. The 
task of managing the London Docks would be great, but no greaterthan that already successfully undertaken by Liverpool, where the 
"Mersey Docks and Harbor Board " had, in 1886-7, a capital debt 
<>f £17,006,169, with receipts of £1,405,562 and expenditure of 
£617,228, with £791,731 for interest and sinking-fund. (House of 
-commons Return, 431 of 1889, p. 39.) 

PUBLIC BATHS AND WASH-HOUSES. 

ONLY 17 London Vestries have established public baths and wash-
houses, although these are of inestimable advantage directly to the 
poor, and indirectly to the public through their reaction on health. 
When properly managed they do not involve any appreciable expense 
from public funcJs. Those at Whitechapel, Marylebone, St. Pancras, 
and Bloomsbury even yield a considerable annual profit, after paying 
all expenses and interest on loans outstanding. The IslingtonVestry determined, in August, 1889, to follow their excellent example. 


Bermondsey.. 

Bloomsbury 

-Greenwich 
Lewisham 
Paddington 
PoplarRotherhithe .. 
St. George's, Hanover Sq... 
St. James', Westmins1er .. 

St. Martin's-in-the-Fields .. 
St. Marylebone
St. Pancras .. 
Westminster: St. Margaret's
vVhitechapel . . . . 


Receipts

(other than 

from rates}. 

£

1.973 

2.520 

1 , 200 

1,897 
4,190 
I, 132 
2,091 
4·141 
3,034 

2,052 

3.520 

6.941 
2,183 
5.385 

Expendilure 

1includi ng 

interest but 

e"Xcludiug 

repayment 

of Loans). 

£ 

3,000 

3.so6 

I,24i 
2,522 
5.368 

~.o4s 

2,589 
5,042 

3.i5s 

2.395 

3.152 
0,409 
2,s6s 
4.892 

Including £1,091 on New 
Buildings.

Including £1,405 Special Repairs 
paid for out of accumulated 
profits. 

Including £1,360 Special Repairs. 


Including £1,59+ Special Receipts, 
and £1,700 SpecialExpenditure on New 
Buildings. 

Battc:rsea, Hampstead and Kensington wc::re not open in 1886-7. (Compiled from H. C. 3.p,

August, 1888, p. 325) 

Every parish in London ought to have at least one of these useful 
institutio11s; and there is no reason why, like the roads, bridges, 
libraries, reading-rooms and (presently) elementary schools, they 


FAcTs FOR LoNDONERS. 

should not be frtled from toll. The total receipts for tickets in the 
14 baths and wash-houses open in 1886-7 only amounted to £38,322 
(baths, £27,592; wash-houses £10,730), representing the fees collected 
for admission at an average of 3d., from about 3,000,000 
people; yet not amounting to much more than a farthing in the 
pound on the rates for London. Would it not be well for London 
to emulate ancient Rome and allow its millions unlimited opportunity 
to wash? Communism in baths, as in roads and bridges, 
would result in a saving of trouble, annoyance and expense, and 
could not have other than beneficial consequences on the publichealth. 

Other public conveniences are still lacking. No London Vestryhas yet provided any public water-closets for gratuitous use, although 
twenty-seven provincial municipalities do so. Only three 
metropolitan authorities provide this accommodation on payment(the City Corporation, the Strand District Board of Works and 
Kensington Vestry), though the value of the service is proved bythe large profit obtained in these cases. Shoreditch and Clerken·
well are now timidly following suit. No public accommodation is 
anywhere provided for women, though this is successfully done at 
Glasgow, Nottingham and Sheffield. (Report of Surveyor to Strand 
District Board, 1889.) 

PUBLIC LIBRARIES. 

UNDER a series of Acts of Parliament the Vestries have power to 
establish public libraries and reading-rooms; but until quite recently 
this power was practically unheeded. The Parish of St. Margaretand St. John, Westminster, established a useful little library in Great 
Smith Street in 1857, but for 29 years it found no imitator; and 
Londoners had to crowd the Guildhall Library (City Corporation) 
and the British Museum, or to rely on the few libraries and reading-
rooms provided at various points by private philanthropy. Wands-
worth got its free public library in 1886; and now the Acts have 
been adopted in Battersea, Bermondsey, Camberwell, Chelsea, Clap-
ham, Clerkenwell, Fulham, Hammersmith, Kensington , Lambeth, 
Putney, Rotherhithe, and St. Martin's in the Fields; but-such is 
official dilatoriness and the power of obstruction possessed by the 
landlords on whom the rate falls-the Commissioners for carrying 
out the Acts for these places " had no financial transactions before 
the close of the year" 1886-7 (H.C. 341, 1888, p. 333). 

The great majority of parishes still neglect to adopt the Acts, 
though the maximum library rate is limited to a penny in the pound.
No East End Vestry has yet provided its constituents with a library. 

We want numerous small local reading rooms and libraries, so that 
every child, as well as every adult, may be able easily to resort to 
them. Every parish, without exception, shoulrl adopt the Acts, and 
establish, not only central, but also branch libraries. 


44 FAcTs FOR LoNDoNERs. 
A LONDON CHURCH-RATE. 

THROUGH special exemptions in the Compulsory Church Rate 
Abolition Act, 1868, 74 parishes still levy rates applied to Church 
purposes. One of these is in London (St. Marylebone); and the 
rate collected there in 1886-7 amounted to £6,241, of which only 
£500 was applied to repayment of debt, the rest being given to the 
maintenance of public worship in the five Marylebone Churches (H.
C., 431, 1889, p. 33). In this case the outstanding loan of £10,800 
ought to be discharged within two years by the devotion of the whole 
rate to that purpose, and the rate then abolished. Some other parisheshave what are practically church-rates under various disguises, and 
Bethnal Green has a small but irksome " Composition Rate," applied 

to ecclesiastical purposes. The incumbents of some parishes have 
still, in some cases, rights to fees on the interments of persons who 
had resided in their parishes. The main expense of London's 400 
Churches is, however, defrayed by the public property in the hands 
of the beneficed clergy. The " Ecclesiastical Commissioners ", as 
successors to various Church dignitaries, are amongst the largest 
owners of London land and houses. 
THE CITY GUILDS. 
A PROPERTY worth at least £15,000,000, clearly belongiug to the 
people of London, is now secretly administered by the 1,500 members 
of the self-appointed " courts of assistants" of the seventy-four"livery companies," the ancient trade guilds of the City of London. 
The total income of these companies (besides their valuable halls, 
plate, etc.) is at least 
£750,000 A YEAR, 
derived mainly from land a.nd house property in London and else-
where. They are, indeed, among the very largest of London's ground 
landlords. About a quarter of this income is devoted to special char-
itable trusts; some good-such as schools, almshouses, pensions to 
the aged, etc.-but needing democratic control; and some bad, such as 
pauper doles, City lectureships, et'c. The balance of the companies'income, about £600,000 a year, is their corporate property, and is 
regarded by the members as being at their own disposal. Accord-
ingly, whilst generously contributing about half of it to various public 
purposes (schools, technical education, charities, etc.), they divide 
the rest practically among themselves: about £175,000 a year beingdevoted to "management and maintenance," a large portion of it 
paid to the 1,500 members of the respective "courts of assistants" 
in fees for their attendance, about £100,000 consumed in banquets,
and about £60,000 in salaries of officers, etc. 

FACTS FOR L oNDoNERs. 

TABLE SHOWING THE C ORPORATE AND TRUST lNCO:\IE OF THE 
LONDON LIVERY COMPANIES, 1879-80. 


TWELVE GREAT COMPANIES. 

-----· ---· 

Corporate 

Trust 

Total Number of Nun,ber

Company. 

Income. 

Income. 

Income. Li\·erymen. of Court. 

£ 

£ 

£

Mercers .. .. •• 1 4n41 

82,758 

35.417 

157 30 

Grocers .. .. .. 37.736 

214

38,236 

sao 

35

Drapers .. .. .. 50,141 

302

28,513 

29

; 8.654 

Fishmongt:rs .. .. 46,913 

3,800 

50,]13 

432 

34

Goldsmiths .. .. 43.505 

ljO

10,792 

25

54,297 

Skinners .. .. .. 18,977 

190

28,927 

30

9·950 

Merchant Taylors .. 

12,068 

195

43,31 I

31•243 

35

Haberdashers .. .. 

20,000 

460

9.032 

29.032 

38 

Salters .. .. .. 

18,892 

2,148 

21,040 

27

173 

Ironmongers .. .. 

12,822

9,625 

21,647 

52 

55

220

Vintners .. .. .. 

18

1,522 

ro,887

9.365 

Cloth workers .. .. 

10,000 

150 I

40,458 

50,458 

44 

363,227 

510,76o 2,]15 I 400

147.532 

THE T\\' ELVE LARGEST OF THE MINOR COMPANIES. 

Corporate 

Trust Total 

Number of Number

Company. 

I 

Liverymen . of Court.

Income. 

Income. l ucerne. 

I

-
£ 

£ £

Leathersellers .. .. 

2o333 18,728 

16,395 

139 28 

Brewers .. . . .. 

15,482 18,640 

3,157 

iS 30 

Carpenters .. .. 

940 I 1,318 

10,378 

134 ? 

Saddlers .. .. .. 

10,243 

1,000 I I ,243 

92 24 

Armourers .. .. 

8,026 

6o 8,o!S6 

66 21 
Cordwainers .. .. 

1,6oo 7.754

6,15+ 

96 20 

Coopers .. .. .. 

2,420 

ljO 20 
Dyers .. .. .. 

4,j00 j,l20

6,000 

r,ooo j,OOO 

83 ? 

Cutlers .. .. 

88 23 
Stationers .. .. 

so 5.387

5.337 

3,1 jO 

1,576 4-746 

312 ? 
Girdlers .. .. . . 

2,932 

91 24 
Apothecaries .. .. 

1,374 4·306 

rso 24 

-

77,610 

soo 3.898 

3.398 

3o,6r5 108,226 

1,296 300 

I I 

Fifty sll)aller Com-

I

panies, about.. .. 

40,000 ro,ooo 50,000 

3,500 8oo 

Total in 1879-80 

r88,147 668,g86

480,837 

7,500 r,5ooAnnual Value of Halls, 

I 

Plate, &c. . . .. 

roo,ooo 

-100,000Probable Increase in 
Income in ro years .. 

;o,ooo 

30,000 I 100,000 

Probable Total, 1889 .. 

650,837 

218,147 I 868,986 

7,500 r,5oo 

(S ummarized from Firth's "Reform of London Government/' and Royal Commission Report,

c-4073, Vol. iv. 


Miscel


laneous. 

-£


r,86o 
997 

8.344 
2,736 
46 FACTS FOR LoNDONERS. 
EXPENDJTURE OF CORPORATE INCOME, !879·80. 
I Corpo· Court & 
.; Enttr-Manage::-
-~ tainm'nts rnent and Ccntri-
Name of Company. rate In-other "' and Mainte-but ions. come. Fees. -; Wine nance.cJl-[ ---_ 1,___ 
£ -£ -£ .1" 
Mercers .. 47-341 8,766 5;643 4-909 7 i29 15,236 
Grocers .. 37,236 762 3,672 6,014 2,298 17,491 
Drapers .. 50,141 4,984 4-149 6,112 1U. 576 12,320 
-·. 
Fishmongers . . 4U,913 £6,994 9-311 7,247 19.993 --,..._. 
Goldsmiths .. .. 43·505 r,s76 4,2921 r•. 266 6,954 28,414 
Skinners . . 18,977 2 ,566 2,6 17 5 6o2 1-498 5-272 2,212 
Merchant Taylors .. 31,243 1,291 4.68sl 8,985 1-936 r 1,694 457 
Haberdashers 9,032 2,496 j62 2,024 I.\ 15 I, I 70 276 
Salters .. 18,940 3,101 I ,072 1 3-046 2 345 2,SS7 8,474 
Ironmongers .. 9,629 873 I ,534 2,479 2.866 1,057 1,3SO 
Vintners .. 9.33S 1,104 r,;26 3.o;o r,6o7 I,SOil 499 
Clothworkers . . 39. 149 3.S24 3.070 3-742 7,S I 7 19·473 
Apothecaries 3.398 296 498 ;78 1S3 631 
Armourers and Braziers 8,o86 I,46S 66o 1,923 1,996 3.283 
Bakers I.9 II 347 186 ;78 384 393 
Barbers I ,383 r66 2SO ss6 201 
Blacksmiths .. 684 102 ii 370 40 128 
Brewers 3.1S7 307 773 628 478 6o6 
Carpenters I 1,318 941 69 1 1,289 973 I ,227 2,147 
Coachmakers 1,179 182 13 I 238 353 178 
Cooks 2.56o 356 244 I. I22 31 9 ! 8<) 
Coopers 2,42C 1,461 377 (iltCiurll•d 371 190wit h Cou rt(in cludinJ: F<.:cs)entertain· I 
111 cn ts) 
Cordwainers .. 6,259 £2,206 1,070 1-5+2 1,050 
Curriers 1,295 129 278 320 [ ,250 105 
(including\\f,rl..... iu 
Cutlers 5 88s 
h.Liil 200/02 ss5 2-343 (HJ5 I' ISS 
Founders r,853 271 250 410 839 S+
Girdlers . . 4.356 319 +P 1.05 2 1,4()1 1--
Glaziers II 
285 36 45 189 11 
lnnholders l ,327 184 ISO 222 360 
Joiners 1,J 12 244 120 ; 8_! 83 264 
Leathersellers t6,395 2 200 >,o;ol 2,666 '). 100 2 705 
Painters 793 44 32 S _)62 31 
Plumbers 887 316 86 39'l (i nclud••cl 66 
,,ith Cllt•·r· 
Saddlers t.Ji lll ll C: II b) 
r.84S10,243 3,140 7731 1.;ss 1.365 
Scriveners 836 184 ll.j JISJ (included 245 with 
3351 644 
:,al;arie..,) 
Stationers 3.173 !.077 suo 
Wax Chandlers I ,375 2.092 ?ZQ (i ncluth.·tl !included I) " 
-with Cour1 \'ith Coll rl (in clu<l inJ: F c"-''>l F l.'cS) law cost._, 
Wh~dwnghts 31 9 
&c.) 
48 
I 
225 34 40 
----
From Firth's "Reform of London Government.'' 

FAcTs FOR LoNDO)IERS. 

These com pames formerly discharged various public functions. 
connected with their respective trades, and were once doubtless of 
great public utility. Every trading citizen, rich or poor, man or 
woman, could become a member, and was sometimes obliged to do 
so. It is probable that the companies are still legally "empoweredto compel every tradesman in London or the suburbs to take up his 
freedom in the company; and every tradesman or craftsman has the 
right to be admitted. The companies are bound to teach the trade 
to all who come to learn, and to 

PROVIDE FOR THE POOR, 
infirm, and decayed out of the lands which they were by charter 
permitted to acquire." (Firth's "Reform of London Government," 
pp. 101-2. London: Sonnenschein-" Imperial Parliament" Series.)

It need hardly be said that the companies themselves recognize no 
such obligations. The Goldsmiths' Company still exercises a vexatious 
and unnecessary" hall-marking" of gold and silver; the Fishmongers'Company still inspects and condemns stinking fish; the Apothecaries'Company maintains botanic gardens and grants inferior medical degrees; 
the Gunmakers' Company tests and stamps gun-barrels; and the 
Stationers' Company sells almanacks and maintains (most inefficiently)
a register of published books. But these, with some feeble efforts 
of the Plumbers, Turners, Coachmakers, and a few other companies,
practically cover the surviving public services rendered in return for 
the magnificent public property administered by the companies.

The necessity for reform has long been manifest. In 1884 a RoyalCommission presen ted an exhaustive report, signed by such moderate 
reformers as the Earl of Derby, the Duke of Bedford, Viscount 
Sherbrooke, Lord Coleridge, and Alderman Sir Sidney Waterlow, 
in which they recommended the 

Illll\IEDIATE INTERVENTION OF THE STATE 

"for the purpose of (1) preventing the alienation of the property of 
the companies of London ; (2) securing the permanent applicationof a considerable portion of the corporate income thence arising to 
useful purposes; (3) declaring new trusts in cases in which a better 
application of the trust income of the companies has become desirable." 
They also recommended that the companies should be compelled 
to publish accounts; that their constitution should be reorganized 
; and that admission to the livery should cease to confer 
the Parliamentary franchise (C., 4073, 1884). 

But as the companies now fulfil practically no useful functions, 
and can no longer be made o~en to all London citizen<;, there is 
no reason why they should still be permitted to deal with London's 
inheritance. They must be dissolved, and their functions, rights, 
property and duties transferred to the County Council (or perhaps 
to the suggested Hospitals and Charities Board, see p. 22) as the 
representative of the people of London. The first step is to passthrough Parliament a bill to safeguard this public property from 
secret alienation, confe1;·ing upon the London County Council r;ower 
to prepare a scheme for the management and distribution of the 
magnificent heritage of the people of London. 


FAcTs FOR LoNDONERS. 

THE PROPERTY OF THE POOR. 

OF the vast amount of property given or bequeathed by way of 
-endowment of various charities, much has been stolen; and much is 
still being jobbed or misapplied. There is no complete record even 
()f existing charities; no official statistics exist of the charitable endowments 
; no general public audit, supervision or control checks 
the waste or misappropriation of the Property of the Poor. The 
"' Charity Commissioners" interfere, sometimes unadvisedly, in special 
<:ases, but they have no general authority over charities as :mch. 
Trustees of charitable funds a,re bound to render accounts to the 
Commissioners, and, in the case of parochial charities, to the Vestry'(18 & 19 Vic. c. 124, s. 44), but many disobey the law, which is not 
.enforced. Those returns which are received are not published.

The annual income from charity property administered by the CityCompanies is about £218,000 (see p. 45) ; the income from propertyof 19 general hospitals is £41,962 (Memorandum on Medical Charities, 
by C. 0. S.-see p. 21) ; the "City Parochial Charities," reorganized 
in 1887-9, possessed an income of £108,000, of which about 
£40,000 or £50,000 a year is being diverted to "Polytechnics,"
" Open Spaces," etc. ; the income from property of other endowed 
charities of London is estimated to exceed £150,000 (see List in 
Charity 01·ganizcLtion Review, Aug. 1888, p. 356). Some of them, 
such as " The Foundling " and Christ's Hospital, are among the 
"'great landlords" of London (see p. 9). The total property income 
of all the London Charities must amount to at least half a million 
sterling annually (not including the " corporate " income of thfl City 
Companies-see p. 45). The total income from all sources of metropolitan 
charities is put at £4,000,000 (Encyclopcedia Britannica, vol. 

xiv. p. 833); or, at least, £3,000,000 (see the statistics in ChaTityOrganization Review, Aug. 1888, p. 358). 
For all England and Wales, Mulhall (Dictionary of Statistics, p.79) 
estimates English Charitable Endowments in 1876 as follows :


Real Estate 
Stock... 
.. 
Capital.
£;31 ,100,000 
20.1l00,000 
lucome. 
£1,55H,OOO 
640,000 
£51,300,000 £2,198,000 

" The real estate comprises 154,000 acres of land and some house 
property." Itis believed that this is an under-estimate of the presentvalue, and that much school and other property is excluded. The 
old Charity Reports of fifty to seventy years ago showed an income 
of £1,209,395, and large groups of charities were exempted. The 
Charity Commissioners since 1853 have authorized sale of land value 
£6,715,550, and their official trustees hold about fourteen millions 
sterling of investments. The older Universities possess (with the 
Colleges) over £10,000,000 of property. "The Endowments are£
280,000 per annum in Oxford, and £235,000 in Cambriqge" (Mulhall, 
p. 457). The charitable endowments bear, however, a verysmall proportion to the whole property of the community. Even if 
they amount to £100,000,000, this is little over 1 per cent. of the 
aggregate wealth (see" Capital and Land "-Fabian Tract No.7). 

,· 


FAcTs FOR LoNDONERS. 

PERVERSION OF CHAHITIES. 

Much London property has been, and is being, diverted from the 
poor and working classes, for whom it was given or left, to the 
benefit of others. Property left by Atwell, for employing the 
unemployed, and by Hunt for apprenticing boys and relieving decayed 
tradesmen of the Skinners, has been taken for middle-class or 
secondary education. The usual plan of the Charity Commissioners 
is to take poor's money, and (with the help of the Education Department) 
pervert it to middle-class education, giving a small portion to 
be competed for by children from elementary schools. Much of that 
property of the colleges at Oxford and Cambridge which was givenfor poor scholars is now thrown open to competition, and largelyobtained by the rich, whose sons have, by training, advantages over 
poor men's sons. The abuses of Christ's Hospital and " God's Gift," 
Dulwich College, are well known. A scheme for the perversion of 
Southwark Free Grammar School was begun in 1889. Rent-chargesbelonging to charities (generally each of small value) have been, and 
<tre being, lost by neglect. Even now, the Charity Commissioners 
make new schemes, appointing as trustees of charities persons elected 
by the London close vestries or "co-optated." Very frequently, 
donors of charities left land to corporations subject to keeping sa 
many boys at a school, or paying such a sum to charity. Frequently 
(but not always) it is held that no part of the unearned 
increment of value of the land accrues to the charity.

By the " Mortmain" Acts, Parliament forbade land to be left to 
the people, and also threw hindrances in the way of free gifts of 
land to the people for charitable or public purposes. There are, 
however, a number of specially favored charities or charitable objects 
to which gifts of land by will or otherwise are partially allo\\·ed. 
The time has come to repeal the Mortmain Acts entirely. Now that 
land in mortmain is (partially) subject to "corporation duty" in lieu 
of death duties, and charities are subject to revision by Parliament, 
most of the reasons for the Mortmain laws are gone. Voluntary" land nationalization" for charitable purposes should be encouraged, 
not discouraged. 

THE POLICE AND THE POLICE COURTS. 

LoNDON has two entirely distinct police forces, the "Metropolitan" 
and the " City'' Police. The former (established under Mr.-afterwards 
Sir-Robert Peel in 1829) is now wholly paid for out of the 
rates levied by the several parishes, but is nevertheless entirely controlled 
by the Home Secretary. He appoints the chief officers, 
supervises the administration and the accounts, and is consulted 
about all important orders. The people of London have nothing to 
do but to pay the bill. The bill is heavy. In 1888-9, the total 
~xpenditure was £1,597,832, equal to almost precisely one shilling 
Ill the pound in London's rates (one-fifth of the whole rates). 


FAcTs FOR LoNDONERS. 

(House of Commons Return, No. 127 of 1889.) The City police 
cost, in addition, £117,7 46 annually (expenditure for 1886-7). (Houseof Commons Return, No. 423 of 1889.) 

The Metropolitan and City police district (established by 2 and 3 
Vic., c. 47) comprises, however, an area more than five times that 
of the "administrative county" of London. It has a radius of 15 
miles from Charing Cross, and covers 688 square miles. It is a 
rapidly growing area. Since the year 1849, when the police numbered 
5,493, there have been built 513,278 new houses, and 3,123 are 
still in course of erection; 1,853 miles of new streets have been 
added to the charge of the police, and the population has increased 
from 2,473,758 to 5,590,576, which means that in regard to population 
alone, the cares of the police have increased 126 per cent. To 
guard that enormous population, the Metropolitan police provides 
30 superintendents, 837 inspectors, 1,369 sergenants, and 12,025 
constables, a total of 14,261. (Report of Chief Commissioner, 1889, 
C-5761; price 4~d.). The City police furnishes, in addition, about 
1,100 men. 

Drivers and conductors of public carriages deposited with the police23,187 articles in the course of the year, and of these 10,338 were returned 
to their owners, and the rest were sold. The convictions for 
drunkenness recorded against drivers and conductors were 1,527. 
The number of summonses issued on the application of the police was 
12,574, and in 11,710 the result was conviction; this shows a marked 
increase on 1887. Another growing duty of the police is the takingof persons injured, or otherwise wanting medical aid, to the hospitals.
Of such cases there were 6,300 last year, or 17 every day-an increase 
of 300 on the year before. 'l'he total number of personsapprehended was 75,807, or 207 every day, and of these 49,606 were 
summarily convicted, 22,711 vvere discharged, and the remainder 
committed for trial; 4,400 beggars were "run in"; 481 persons were 
apprehended for "having no visible means of subsistence," and 2!)5of them were duly punished therefor ; 2,797 prostitutes were apprehended 
for "annoying male passengers" and other offences. (C5761.) 
The police register, license and inspect common lodging-
houses (see p. 28), cabs and omnibuses (see p. 51), tramway cars 
(see p. 35); they licem;e driYers and conductors, as well as hawkers 
and pedlars; and they are responsible for carrying out the Smoke 
Nuisance Abatement Acts (53 summonses; £278 16s. 8d. fines n,ucl 
costs imposed, in 1888). Yet the people of London have no shadow 
of control over them or their proceedings. 

The twelve police courts are paid for out of the national exchequer,
and London's representatives have no control over the twenty-twomagistrates. The courts and magistrates cost £66,564 in 1888-9, of 
which £12,519 was recouped by fees (H.C., No. 127 of 1889)largely 
a tax on the "justice" of the poor. 

\Vith proper precautions against abuse, the fees for summonses 
might well be abolished. "To no man will we sell, to none denyjustice., (Magna Charta). 


FAcTs FOR LoNDONERs. 

LONDON'S PUBLIC HOUSES. 

THE licensing of public houses was not affected by the Local 
Government Bill, and still rests in the hands of the Justices of the 
Peace, an exclusively capitalist body, nominated by the Lord Chancellor. 
The following are the statistics for Middlesex and the 
metropolitan divisions of Surrey and Kent :


Fully

P I t" Lt"censed " Off Total 

opu a ton. Houses. Licenses." Licenses. 

MIDDLESEX: 
Including London} 


2,869,833 6,515 1,726 8,241 

North of Thames 

S URR EY: 

Newington Division 845,247 1,620 461 2,081 

Wandsworth , 170,873 320 171 491 

KENT : 

Blackheath Division 268,237 611 177 788 

4,154,191 9,066 2,535 11,601 

(House of Commons Return, Session 1889, No. 152.) 

Although the area covered by these statistics is not precisely that 
of the " Administrative County" of London, it may be taken as 
fairly representing it as regards the number of licensed houses in 
proportion to population. This stands at one licensed house to 
every 358 people. The proportion for all England and Wales is 
one to every 202 (H.C., No. 152, 1889). The total number in the 
Metropolitan Police District is 14,028; on the other hand, the number 
of bakers in the metropolis is only 3,346 (C-5761).

Whether this proportion is considered correct or not, it appears 
absolutely necessary to place the full control over the granting of 
licences to sell alcoholic liquors in the hands of the people of each 
locality, through popularly elected representatives. 

LONDON'S CABS AND OMNIBUSES. 

THE first " hackney coaches " date from about 1625, when there 
were 20 of them : the first omnibuses from 1829 (Ency. Brit., vol.xiv. 

p. 823). The number licensed in 1884 and 1888 respectively was as 
follows :Hansoms. 
Four-wheelers. OmnibuseE. 
1884 6,832 3,737 1,528 
1888 7,396 4,013 1,898 

(C.-5,761.) There are 585 cabstands, and only 38 " cabmen's 
shelters." The police also license conductors and drivers (in the 
case of cab-drivers, after an examination as to knowledge of London 
geography, at which over one-third of the candidates fail). The 
number licensed in 1888 was, cab-drivers, 15,514 ; omnibus or tram-
car drivers, 5,395 ; conductors, 7,238; total, 28,147 (ibid, p. 12). 
The licensing may be convenient to the public, but why charge these 
poor men fees for it ? 


FAc'rs FOR LoNDoNERs. 

That the business of running omnibuses-now nearly all under 
joint stock management-is a profitable one to the capitalist, the 
following statistics of the four companies will shew:


Company. Capitn.l.
£ 
Per C•nt. 
of Dividend. 
£ 
Net 
Income. 
£ 
-· 
Lon• :o n General Omnibus ... ... 
London Omnibus Carriage ... ... 
Lonclon Road Car ... . . . .. 
Ruihva)S and Metropolitan Omnibus.. 
594,100 
16,2\15 
6,000 
156,750 
16,515 
2,500 
10 
G 
5 
3 
5 
5 
5\J.~. lO 
973 
300 
4,702 
825 
1:l5 
--Total 
... ... ... ... 7!l2,090 ~-~-eG,335 

(From " Stock Exchange Year Book," 1889.) 

THE BURIAL OF THE DEAD. 

THE buriflol of the dead is supervised in London by 29 "Burial 
Boards," appointed by the local vestries (in the City, by the Common 
Council). About 17 of these have their own public cemeteries, including 
Paddington, Hampstead, the City, Kensington, Fulham, 
Hammersmith, St. George's (Hanover Square), St. Pancras, Isling-
ton, Lambeth, Wandsworth, Lee, Charlton and Woolwich. Brompton 
Cemetery (which ought to be closed) belongs to the national 
government, and is administered by the Office of Works and Buildings,
the annual receipts being paid into the Exchequer. The Metropolitan 
Burial Boards present the following statistics :


From From Sale From

From

Burial of Graves, Other Total.

Rates.

Fee~. Vaults, &c. Source~. 
£ £ £ £ £ 
l{eceipts !3+,947 10,495 5,828 2,500 53,770 

Burial Fees to Otl Interest Loans 

(;rounds Chaplains, Salarie~. p 1e\ on Repaid. Total. 

& Bldgs. Sextons, &c. aymen s. Loans. 
£ £ £ £ £ £ £ 
Expenditure 17,H43 7,849 5,527 8,898 4,589 5,985 50,791 

Loans outstanding, £108,602 (H.C., 3·!1, 1888, p. 248). 

This does not by any means exhaust the taxation levied on Lon-
don's funerals. Owing to past individualist neglect, the provisionof burial places has been allowed to become a matter of private 
speculation, and some of the largest Loudon cemeteries are in 
private hands. Complete statistics for these are inaccessible, but the 
following particulars of four joint stock companies can be given:



FAcTs FOR LoNDONERs. 

Estimated 
Compaoy. Cemetery. Capital. Dividends 
per aonum. 
London Necropolis and National 
Mausoleum Company ... ... 
London Cemetery Company ... 
WokingHighgate and 
Nunhead 
£ 
149.160 
137,806 
.£ 
1,500 
6,200 
Abney Park Cemetery Company 
Manor Park Cemetery Company 
Abney Park 
Manor Park 
41 ,990 
25,618 
3,1503,200 

(See •• Stock Exchange Year Book," 1889.) 
The total annual number of deaths in London is about 83,000 
(in 1887, 82,545; see C-5138), or about 20 per 1,000 of the population 
(1885, 19·8; 1886, 19·9; 1887, 19·6 ).* A death occurs in each 
household on an average once in every 10 years. 
Why need we add to the trouble and economic disturbance necessarily 
incident to death by levying a toll on burial? The disposalof the dead is a matter of common concern; the fulfilment of 
this public duty presses crushingly on the poor in their hour of 
greatest need ; " communism in funerals " is not likely to lead to 
reckless increase in the demand for graves ; and any simplificationof the extravagant expenses now incurred in the matter would be a 
great boon. 
''Free burial" would, moreover, enable the total abolition of 
infant insurance, with its accompanying evil of infant murder. No 
valid plea for the insurance oi children would remain if the need for 
individual provision of funeral charges were obviated. The Chief 
Registrar of Friendly Societies (Mr. J. M. Ludlow) emphatically 
recommends the public management of funerals (as in Paris).
"The real remedy as respects infant insurance, he persisted in 
"thinking, lay in vesting the carrying out of burials, for all classes 
"alike, as a public function, (in) such (authorities) for instance, as 
"town or county councils, or, at all events, in large companies act


*This death-rate shows a ()'reat decrease even during the present generation,
due almost cutirely to the "'steady, though largely unconscious, progress of 
" Municipal Socialism." In 1854, the " cholera year," the death-rate was :29·±, 
and in 181\5 (a normal year) :24·3 per thousand. The difference between this 
last. figure and the present rate represents the saving-of 18,000 lives per annum 
(Report of l\letropolitan Board of \Vorks, 1888, p. 7). How many more could 
be saved by an extension of this municipalization? 

The present low death-rate is, moreover, an average for all London, obscuring 
the fact of a terrible mortality in the poorer quarters. "The rate of 
" mortality in a certain quarter of St. Pancras was st.ated by the excellent 
" medical officer of that parish, :Mr. l\lurphy, to have reached in the year 188:2 
" the enormous rate of 70·1 per 1,000, but this was a calculation for a very"small number of buildinO'S. In WellinO"tou Square, however, which was 
"stated in evidence to belo;;'g to a member"' of the St. Pancras Vestry, the rate 
"the same year was 53·7 per 1,000, and in Derry Street, 4,!·,! per 1,000." 
(Report of Royal Commission on Housing of the Poor, 188c!, p. 14.) In one 
street in St. Giles', in 1886, the death-rate was 53 per 1,000; in Bloomsbury 
a few hundred yards off, only 14 per 1,000. (Medical Officer's Rel'ort.) 


FAcTs FOR LoNDONERS. 

"ing under their authority." (Evidence of Mr. Ludlow before Select 
Committee on Friendly Societies, see Times report, 13th July, 1889.)

The actual provision of burial grounds, and the bare cost of interment, 
might, at any rate, be made a public charge, borne by all 
collectively instead of by each in turn. As soon as cremation becomes 
generally adopted, this should also be made a matter of publicadministration. The Paris Municipal Council, which maintains all 
cemeteries and controls all funerals, has its own "crematorium " at 
Pere la Chaise, for the use of which only a nominal fee is charged. 

LONDON'S FINANCIAL BUDGET. 

THE various public authorities of the metropolis had a total income 
in 1885-6 of £10,108,761, a revenue exceeding that of any British 
Colony, and only surpassed by 14 Empires and Kingdoms. The 
expenditure was £9,462,577, or £11 per family per annum, beingnearly equal to the average share per family of the national expenditure. 
The total outstanding debt was £37,999,350, or just about 
one year's rental. We pay to the landlords every year, for permission 
to live in London, as much as the total outstanding cost of our 
schools, parks, drains, and magnificent street improvements. (Reportof Local Government Board, C.-5,526, p. 437.) 

The municipalization (by purchase) of the gas and water supply,
the tramways, the docks, the monopolist markets, and the privatecemeteries might add another fifty-five millions sterling to Loudon's 
corporate debt, but the addition would be merely nominal. At present, 
we are paying nearly £3,500,000 annually to the share and 
bondholders who are permitted to "own" these undertakings; and 
this amount would provide, at 3 per cent., the annual interest on 
no less than £115,000,000 addition to the County Council debt. 

Capital 
Outlay.
£ 
I Estimated 
Market Value of 
Shares, &c. 
I £ 
Present 
Income. 
£ 
---
Docks ... 
Water ... 
Gas ... 
'l'ramways 
... 
... 
... ... 
.. . 
... 
... 
... 
--20,2 
18,580 
14,1-!0,434 
13,654,2:3; 
3,316.459 
15,000,000 
30,000,000 
30.000,000 
4,000,000 I 
584,463 
1,077,326 
1,537.449 
185,785 
'l'otnl ... ... 51,1!29 710 79,000,000 3,385,023 

Even buying up these undertakings at their present inflated market 
price of some £80,000,000 would enable a saving of nearly a million 
annually in interest. If we were to pay out the shareholders at cost 
price, we miaht save nearly £1,500,000 per annum, or eight pence 
per week per family, and have at the same time the advantage of 
complete public control over what are essentially public services. 
Each year's such saving would provide half as many artizans' 


FACTS FOR LONDONERS. 

dwellings as have been built by the eleven joint stock companies 
ever since they began : or it would provide one year's board and 
secondary education for every child now turned out annually from 
our elementary schools. What it now does is to enable some ten 
thousand families to live, as shareholders and bondholders, uponthe labor of Londoners, without the obligation of rendering anyservice in return. 

The "municipalization'' of these essentially public services would 
thus not only cost nothing, but provide an annually growing fund, 
as at Manchester and elsewhere, for London's improvement. For 
London's further needs, London·s growing rental would easily suffice. 
The complete rehousing of the million poor would cost scarcely 
more than one year's income of the London landlords, even if the 
rooms were let rent free. A "landlord's rate" of only a shilling in 
the pound would be adequate to cover the whole net cost of the 
operation if carried out by a loan. 

The mere "ground rent" of London, apart from any payment for 
buildings or other improvements, would more than replace the whole 
of the present receipts from dock dues, water rates, gas bills, tram 
fares, school fees, bath pence, burial fees, police court stamps, and 
a host of other imposts now levied as toll upon the public.

The " unearned increment ' of value annually added to the London 
landlord's estate would, of itself, cover the whole expenditureof the School Board, and also provide every London child with two 
years' secondary education, with board and lodging thrown in . 

• 

PHINTED BY GEOllLil:: STANDHING, 7 & \), FINSllUHY STHEET, LONDON, E.C.