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recalling the history of the question, which I did in my sixth
monthly report, for the current year, as follows :—
" Prior to 1878 the supervision of London bakehouses was
vested in the officers of the ' Local Authority,' under the provisions
of the Bakehouse Regulation Act, 1863. For some reason, unknown
to me, the Government of the day transferred the duty of supervising
these establishments to the factory inspectors under the provisions of
the Factory and Workshop Act, 1878. The results were disastrous.
The factory inspectors were too few in number to perform the duty
imposed upon them ; and, speaking generally, supervision of bakehouses
came to an end. In this parish, indeed, the Sanitary Inspectors
continued to visit the premises (nearly 500 inspections of 130
bakehouses were made in 1881) and the necessary steps were taken
to secure the best sanitation practicable, regard being had to the fact
that most of the bakehouses are underground, and that only in exceptional
instances had they been constructed for the purposes of the
business. Into what an unsatisfactory state the London bakehouses
fell when the duties of sanitary officials in regard to them ceased, may
be read in the annual report for 1881 of the Chief Inspector of Factories
and Workshops, which includes excerpts from a report on some
of the East-end bakehouses by an assistant factory inspector. The
revelations contained in that report were, doubtless, the efficient cause
of the advice tendered to Government by the Chief Factory Inspector,
recommending that the duty of enforcing the provisions of the law
relating to bakehouses should be transferred from the factory inspectors
to the Metropolitan Board of Works.
" In my annual report for the same year (1881) I had drawn your
Vestry's attention to the subject. The view I took was that, as the
Government, in deference to the views of sanitarians, had seen fit (in
1874) to take measures for securing the proper construction and
becoming cleanliness of places where an offensive trade (of a slaughterer
of cattle) was carried on, it was not too much to hope that, upon
proper representations, they might be induced to take measures for the
reform of bakehouses. ' The manufacture of bread,' I said, 'as carried
on ordinarily by semi-nude men, is open to objection, and this might
and should be put an end to, by a law requiring the substitution of
machinery for manual labour. Bye-laws should be framed to regulate
the construction of bakehouses and flour stores; to provide for cleanliness,
by cemented and painted walls, and by impermeable floors
furnishing no holes for insects ; and for light ventilation, &c. There
should be no drain inlet within the bakehouse, and no other possible
source of nuisance within reach of it. To sum up,' I added, 'What
really is required, is a proper Bakehouse Regulation Act, providing
for the licensing of bakehouses, and conferring on Sanitary Authorities
the power, which they should be obliged to exercise, of regulating the
trade by Bye-laws, uniform for the Metropolis, dealing with—