London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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Deptford 1926

Annual report on the health of the Metropolitan Borough of Deptford

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65
give no trouble; one or two, however, still endeavour to push out a
trestle occasionally, but these are soon detected and persuaded to
conform. In the Court cases the magistrate ruled that meat should be
kept behind the window lines and should be covered with gauze. He
would not enforce the putting in of windows, but the study of the above
table will show that the " window " question is not an acute one in the
Borough. During the summer of 1926, practically all butchers did
their best, by various means, to combat the fly nuisance, and with
varying degrees of success. It was noted particularly that fewer flies
existed in shops provided with closed glass windows. With closed
windows, electric fans, and certain liquid preparations—near to which
the flies will not come—flies can be kept in check. The open shop
presents the biggest difficulty, for an adequate protection of the
meat in these instances is a genuine difficulty. The old-fashioned
belief of the butchers that business can only be done provided
the whole stock-in-trade is spread out in front of the shop, half way
across the footpath to the gutter, is no doubt hard to kill, but local
butchers who have adopted the closed glass windows are now
saying that it is far preferable to the open-fronted shop, is cleaner in
every way, that their trade has not suffered, and lastly, that the keeping
quality of the meat is considerably improved. The standard of
cleanliness of the butchers' shops and their cold stores is good, and the
Food Inspector has only served notices for cleansing. All now have
an adequate number of covered bins for the reception of bones, scraps,
etc., and efforts are being made to procure a more frequent collection
of the bones, etc., during the summer months. The street stalls and
those in the Market are inspected daily and are kept in conformity
with the law. Apart from visits paid by the Food Inspector, Sanitary
Inspectors, working in rota, visit the butchers' shops, stalls, etc., every
Saturday evening to see that the Regulations are complied with.
Slaughterhouses. The two local places are under constant
observation. On only 4 occasions during the year have organs been
rejected; these were affected with common parasitic diseases. Vehicles
carrying meat into the Borough from Smithfield have been inspected
on 57 occasions and in all cases the meat has been found covered
with satisfactory material or the Regulations have been otherwise
fulfilled.