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8
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
Bethnal Green is a roughly rectangular shaped
district in East London, about 1¾ miles from west to
east and about one mile from north to south, and
760 acres in area.
It is bounded by Shoreditch and Hackney on the
north, Stepney on the south and Poplar on the east.
Where the original soil exists it is of gravel and sand
formation. The surface is generally flat, varying from
36 to 54 feet above sea level.
The principal industries carried on in the district
are the making of boots, shoes and clothing, cabinet
making and other branches of the furnishing trade.
The main lines of the Great Eastern section of the
L.N.E.R. pass through the Borough. There are also
three railway stations in the Borough, and several
others in close proximity, while various tram and motor
bus routes traverse the main roads in the Borough.
There is a considerable daily inflow and outflow
of workers, with the larger stream outward to workplaces
in other parts of London. The tendency is for
the Borough to be increasingly used for industrial and
commercial purposes and the resident population is
very congested. At the 1931 census there were
18,156 structurally separate dwellings in the Borough,
and 27,978 families or separate occupiers lived therein.
There is an excellent open space to the east of
the Borough in the shape of Victoria Park, and there
are a few small open spaces elsewhere in the Borough.
The rateable value of the Borough on the 31st
December, 1936, was £528,311, and the product of a
Id. rate is estimated at £2,020.
SOCIAL WELFARE.
The close connection between the economic
position of the people and their standard of health
makes it necessary to collate some of the outstanding
facts about the social welfare of the residents in
the Borough. Large numbers of them are still
unemployed and a still larger number either working
short time or in employment of very irregular and