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the risk of detection to incurring the expense of providing adequate accommodation. I came across
several instances of the kind myself, and, having regard to the number of premises to be visited and
the extent of ground to be covered, one inspector cannot cope with this difficulty. The Vestry, in
rejecting in 1895 the recommendation of its committee and the advice of its medical officer of health,
practically made it worth the while of unscrupulous owners of workshops to incur the risk of defying
the law. The need of increased supervision for adequate control of cleansing operations, and of other
conditions dealt with in the Public Health Act and Factory and Workshops Act is, moreover, apparent.
Again it may be pointed out that it is desirable that use should be made in Kensington of the lists
which employers are required to keep of "outworkers," with a view to the inspection of the places in
which they work. With an additional lady inspector it might be practicable to make a commencement
by instituting periodical visits to places of business with a view to obtaining these particulars as to
"out-workers."
The workshops, &c., where men only are employed have not hitherto been systematically dealt
with in Kensington. Dr. Dudfield writes,* "It is time that these establishments should be taken in
hand, but it cannot be done in any effective way with the present limited and reduced staff of sanitary
inspectors, without letting other and more immediately pressing work fall into arrear." He adds, "we
do not know at present the locality of many of the workshops." A paragraph to a like effect appeared
in Dr. Dudfield's subsequents reports for 1897 and 1898.
Slaughterhouses, cowsheds and offensive trades—There are 13 licensed slaughterhouses, 4
licensed cowhouse premises, and one set of premises upon which the business of a fat extractor is
carried on, in Kensington. I visited the majority of these, and found the by-laws generally speaking
complied with. Some of the premises are in undesirably close proximity to dwelling houses. Complaint
has been made, both to the Council and the Vestry, from time to time, particularly in hot
weather, concerning the premises in Tobin-street, Notting Dale, upon which the business of a fat extractor
is carried on. In May, 1898, complaint was made to the Vestry, in accordance with the terms of section
21 of the Public Health (London) Act, 1891, and the Vestry communicated with the Council on the
subject. The Council subsequently instituted proceedings which were, after a long hearing, adjourned
by the magistrate sine die. + Improvements have since been carried into effect upon the premises, but at
the time of my inspection there was still cause for complaint. Further improvements are being carried
out, and it remains to be seen what effect these alterations will have. The locality is a very unsuitable
one for the conduct of a business of this kind.
Common lodging-houses.—There are 18 establishments, including 32 houses, upon the Council's
register of common lodging-houses; of these, 16 establishments are within or in the near neighbourhood
of the "special area." A number of particulars concerning these houses have already been given,
and it has been seen how favourably they compare with many of the tenement houses in their neighbourhood,
so far as cleanliness and general condition of maintenance are concerned. In one respect,
however, the common lodging-houses are less favourably circumstanced than the tenement houses.
Many of the former were approved and their rooms apportioned for lodgers a number of years ago,
and in such houses the standard applied, in apportioning sleeping rooms, seems to have fallen somewhat
short of 300 cubic feet. At the present time, as the result of a survey which has been
made by Mr. Marks, the Council's inspector, it transpires that out of a total of 219 rooms used as
dormitories, in common lodging-houses in Kensington, no fewer than 120 contain more beds than
would be allowed were the 300 cubic feet standard applied. In 109 of these overcrowded rooms there
is one bed in excess of the number which would be allowed in a tenement house; in 7 there are two
beds; and in 4 three beds in excess of this number. It is very desirable in the interests of the health
of the occupants of the houses that this overcrowding should not continue to exist, and that
further powers should be given for this purpose.
Bakehouses.—The bakehouses in Kensington are 134 in number. They are regularly inspected,
and in those which I visited I found the special provisions relating to bakehouses were carefully
observed.
Insanitary areas.—Kensington is fortunate in not possessing any considerable area in which
there is conspicuous "bad arrangement" of streets and houses, such as has been dealt with in the past
by improvement schemes under the various Acts consolidated in the Housing of the Working Classes
Act, 1890. With the exception of the "James-street area," no "improvement scheme," says Dr.
Dudfield, "has been initiated in this parish." Concerning this "James-street area" a scheme was
prepared, to which the Council intimated that they should not be called on to contribute. After the
usual inquiry by an inspector of the Local Government Board the Vestry obtained the necessary
powers, and the property is now almost completely demolished.
There are a few groups of cottages still standing in the potteries district, the condition and bad
arrangement of which suggest the desirability of obtaining closing orders; such are the seven cottages
on the south side of " Thresher's-cottages," and the cottages in Joliff'e's-yard, Tobin-street. Again,
the cottages known as Cousin's-cottages, Silver-street, some cottages in Lonsdale-mews, and some in
William's-place, Earl'a-court-road, may be specially referred to in this connection.
Refuse removal.—The removal of house refuse was, as has been seen (Table p. 10), much better
accomplished than I found it to be in Lambeth and St. Pancras when I made similar inquiries in
those parishes, but not so well executed as it was in Whitechapel and Mile End Old Town in 1894. It
was noticeable that certain parts of the north-eastern district were less efficiently scavenged than the
rest of the parish.
A piece of work which has been exceedingly well done in Kensington is that of carrying into
effect the Council's by-law dealing with manure receptacles. Already, in 1890, in presenting a
"return showing the names of the several mews in the parish, and the number and kind of receptacles
used for the storage of stable manure/' Dr. Dudfield had pointed out "the propriety of immediate
measures being taken for the abolition of sunken dung pits." In a parish like Kensington, with
its miles of mews, the importance of reducing to a minimum the nuisance caused by storage of
* Annual report for 1896. † See Dr. Dudfield's annual report for 1898, p. 95.