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39
By the Public Health (London) Act, 1891, and the Factory and Workshops
Act, 1891, the duty is also placed upon the Sanitary Authority to cause all
workshops and workplaces to be inspected and to be maintained in a sanitary
condition.
The Secretary of State expressed anxiety that steps should be taken for the inspection
of the workshops and places in which out-workers are employed.
The Local Government Board has urged tho desirability for frequent inspection
of such workplaces and the necessity for remedying insanitary conditions therein.
No inspections of these places have yet been made, nor is there any prospect of
their being made by the present staff, whose time is fully occupied with urgent
and routine work.
Bakehouses.—Retail bakehouses are regulated as workshops under the special
clauses of tho Factory and Workshops Acts. The regulations are directed to
protecting the health of the workers rather than the wholesorneness of the bread,
cakes, and other things made and cooked, for the most part during the night. It
will be seen by referring to the List in the Appendix that of the 202 bakehouses
in the District, of which 12 are at present closed, only 31 are so constructed that
the floor is level with the street, the rest, or 85 per cent., are underground bakehouses,
and with few exceptions over 7ft. below the level of the roadway.
The bakehouses are inspected twice a year, and maintained in conformity with
the requirements of the Acts, the sections of which were quoted in last year's
Report, but these requirements do not touch the question of underground construction,
and there is extreme difficulty in cleansing and ventilating a cellar such
as an underground bakehouse.
It would not be in the justice of things to interfere with existing rights,
but bakehouses should be registere[???], for they are constantly changing ownership
and being closed and re-opened. New bakehouses and bakehouses reopened
after long intervals should be required to conform to a given standard
of construction before being used for the production of bread and other foods.
Bakehouses will be found again referred to under the head of Food Premises.
WATER SUPPLY AND WATER SERVICE.
The Public Health (London) Act, 1891, Section 48 (2), enacts that a house
which after tho commencement of this Act is newly erected, or is pulled
down to or below the ground floor and rebuilt, shall not be occupied as a
dwelling-house until the sanitary authority have certified that it has a proper
and sufficient supply of water, either from a water company or by some other
means.
The new dwelling-houses erected from time to time can be ascertained from
the Reports of the Rating Committee presented quarterly to your Vestry, and
set out in the private minutes.
Questions constantly arise upon the Regulations made under the Metropolis
Water Act, 1871, and as these Regulations are not to be found printed,
except in some earlier Reports of the Water Examiner, they are here reproduced.
together with the Bye-laws for receptacles used for storing water,
for the reference of your Health Department and of your Vestry generally.