BEWILDERING LONDON

Shannon News, 23 April 1926, Page 4

BEWILDERING LONDON

PEOPLE AND WEALTH. If you would turn a dishonest chilling - ,, wager with some of your friends on the number of people there ere in the city of London. They arc almost certain to say seven millions or something like that, whereas the total is a trifling 13,709, and they are mostly caretakers. The catch lies in the fact, as some will know, but as some won’t, that the City of London is exceedingly limited in extent, and is made up of the great banking, insurance, shipping - and business areas, with fetv residences, and those only flats. It was not always so. At the beginning -of the 19th century there were 128,129 people living there. But the trend has been outwards, and there are city men living in districts which 125 years ago were regarded as almost the back of beyond. Paris these days is somelimes described as a suburb of London. Will there be such a word as “remote” in another 125 years? By dipping at random into the pages of a vivid orange-coloured book bearing the arresting title “Statistical Abstract for London, 1915-24,” you discover the figures on which the above statements are based, in addition to a fund of other fascinating things. The work is by the ' Clerk of : the London County Council.

The population of London is given as 7,679,218, including 52,206 from Ireland (the number is increasing every year), 46,617 from the rest of the British Empire, 26,923 Poles, 29,668 Russians, 11,104 Frenchmen, 10,994 Italians and 5743 Germans. Enormous Wealth.

The, wealth of the city is enormous. The rateable value exceeds £50,000,000, including the city £6,748,624. You have to think of London in millions. ’ The travel figures are colossal. Last year 3,325,000,000 were canied on the trains, trams, and.’buses, divided’ as follow: Trains, 872,000,000; trams, 968,000,000; buses, 1,485,000,000. There were at that time a million and a-half miles of telephone ware in the L.C.C. area, and more than SOO million calls were made in the year. This huge trafiic is handled by 7051 "hello girls” and 1862 men—not. too many for a continuous seryice. The Post Office also had a busy time, handling - 20,000,000 telegrams, 45,000,000 parcels and 20,000,000 postal orders. - The value of the food imported was £187,815,000, the value of the raw materials £80,859,000, and of the manufactured goods £100,227,000. - Statistics are dull things, but these almost take your breath away. You wonder where this London is going to end. It shows no sign yet of arrested growth. It is stretching its limbs with all the vigour of a healthy infant north, south, east and west. When it l cache's the full growth of maturity, it will be the first of the world’s seven wonders.