“RED . POPLAR
few possessions they have are of small value and realise little
when taken, as they often are during periods of distress,
to the local pawnbroker. There is, therefore, always a large
percentage of the people dependent upon the Poor Law. In
1905 the number was 11,344; in 1914 it was 7,144; and in
1924 it had risen to 28,199. }
As is usual in working-class districts, the housing in Poplar
is shockingly bad. For the 37,288 families, which according to
the Census (1921) were resident in the Borough, there were but
23,064 separate dwellings, and of these over 20,000 were so small
that they were rated at £19 or less. There were 11,648 houses
which contained less than six rooms, whilst 10,479 were accupied
by two families’ and another 1,799 sheltered three families or
more. The usual standard of overcrowding recognised by the
Ministry of Health is an average of more than two persons per
room. This may not, at first, sound very bad, but when it is
realised that four persons eating and sleeping, living and dying
in two rooms are not, according to this standard, overcrowded,
it is seen to be shamefully low. Yet 33;104 people in Poplar,
or one in five of the population, exist under worse conditions
than this. An average of three, four, and five per room is
frequently found, whilst six, seven, and eight are not
uncommon.
Many of the houses are insanitary and in a terribly bad
state of dis-repair. Built a hundred years or more ago, the
fabric of a large number is worn out and quite beyond repair.
Dark and dismal, damp and verminous, they are really unfitted
for human habitation. Twelve districts have been scheduled as
slum areas which can only be dealt with by pulling them down,
whilst hundreds of houses not included in these areas can never
be put into a really habitable state.
Poverty and overcrowding bring disease and death, and
thousands of Poplar people have been killed by preventable
diseases, due to overcrowding brought about by slum-landlords
and jerry-builders, who have used every power they possess to
prevent the Public Health Authorities dealing with "the
problem. In the years before the War the death-rate in Poplar
was high, especially amongst infants. The average rate of
infantile mortality in 1901-7 was 150 per thousand births.
and in 1908-14 was 124.
In Poplar, if anywhere, was a field for Labour activities;
in Poplar, if anywhere, was there need for the workers to take
control of Local Government and use it for their own better-
ment; in Poplar, if anywhere, Labour has set to work
vigorously to tackle social evils; and in Poplar, Labour has
justified itself, as the following account will show.