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than fourteen days before the date fixed for granting the licenses, notice of the
intention to apply for a license is to be served upon the Sanitary Authority, and they,
if they think fit, may shew cause against granting or renewal of such license.
Notices of application for the renewal of licenses of 19 slaughter-houses were
received by the Sanitary Authority of this Parish.
The Slaughter-houses have all been inspected, and were, with one or two exceptions
satisfactory, and in no case were conditions found to exist sufficiently serious as to
necessitate any opposition to the renewal of the license.
By the bye-laws it is required that every slaughter-house, pound, pen, or lair, shall
be properly lighted and ventilated, and that there shall be provided an adequate water
supply, and proper water fittings and wall coverings; that no room over a slaughterhouse
shall be used for human habitation, nor shall any water-closet, privy, urinal or
stable be in direct communication with or ventilate into any slaughter-house, and
that before the business of a slaughterer of cattle in the County of London shall be
established anew it is necessary that the sanction of the London County Council be
obtained.
It is provided by sec. 15 of the bye-laws that every person applying for sanction
to establish anew the business of a slaughterer of cattle:—
(a) Shall furnish particulars as to the situation of the premises, and as to
the arrangement and construction of the buildings in which such
business is proposed to be established.
(b) Shall also furnish a plan of such premises and sections of the buildings,
drawn to a scale of 1/8th of an inch to 1 foot, shewing the buildings
proposed to be used as slaughter houses, pounds, pens or lairs, their
construction, the provisions for drainage and the means proposed for
ventilation; and
(c) Shall also furnish a key plan of the locality, shewing the site, and all
buildings, dwellings, streets, and places within 250 yards of such site,
and such key plan shall be drawn to a scale of 5 feet to 1 inch.
It is important to observe that all new slaughter-houses must be at least 20 feet
from any inhabited building, and must not have any entrance directly from a public
footway.
It is a matter for congratulation that the number of licensed slaughter-houses
in the parish has fallen from 23 in 1891 to 19 in 1894. The existence of slaughterhouses
in densely populated districts is always liable to be attended with more or
less nuisance.
Of the 19 slaughter-houses at present in use, 10 are licensed for killing sheep
only. There are a number of butchers' businesses carried on in the district where no
slaughtering is done upon the premises. Public abattoirs kept under careful supervision
are now becoming customary in large towns, and there can be no doubt that
their use in the place of a number of small private slaughter-houses, scattered here
and there, cannot but be attended with beneficial results, from a public health point
of view,