View report page

38
Parish of St. George the Martyr, Southwark.
"Lavatory arrangements should be ample, including every facility for washing.
At the same time this department should be cut off from direct communication with
the bakehouse.
"As to the breathing-space for workmen, we consider that, in view of the nature
of the trade, there should be an allowance of at least 500 cubic feet for each adult.
"The foregoing points embrace the main essentials of our ideal bakehouse. It
will be noted that their adoption does not necessarily mean either that retail
bakeries must be replaced by factories, or hand labour by machinery. Nor does it
say that a properly constructed basement should not be used as a bakehouse.
"With regard to underground bakeries, however, one absolutely indispensable
feature is the presence of a clear and open area on at least two sides, preferably back
and front. ■ If the other conditions as to lighting, ventilation, height, structure of
walls, floor and roof, water-supply, construction of furnace, and drainage, be fulfilled,
together with a proper provision of cubic space for workmen, there is no reason why
a basement may not be used for making bread. At the same time it would be always
better to place such workshops above ground wherever possible. Nor should the
adaptation of an ordinary cellar to the purposes of a bakery be allowed under any
conceivable circumstances.
"As regards the areas, we would suggest that every bakehouse altogether below
the general surface of the adjoining ground should have an outside area along its
entire frontage; that the said area be properly drained and paved, be at least four
feet in width in all parts, and extend to six inches below the level of the bakehouse
floor. The second area, whether at back or side of the house, to be of similar
construction, except that it may be three feet in width in all parts. In the case of
basement bakehouses having two feet af their height above the general adjoining
surface level, the width of the front area might also be reduced to three feet. The
windows opening into these areas should reach to the top of the walls, and cover a
superficies equal to one-tenth or more of floor space of the bakehouse, At the same
time each window should be made to open in its upper half.
"In dealing with the bakehouse question, beside the need of fixing structural and
sanitary standards, there are other important points which call for consideration, such
as, for example, the limitation of the hours of labour and the abolition of night work.
"In this short paper the question has been considered mainly from the point of
view of the bread producer. The importance of the matter to the bread consumer,
on the other hand, has been advanced in a joint paper read at the last meeting of the
British Medical Association, in which we showed that baking does not necessarily
destroy the germs that may be contained in the dough. If the microbes, for instance,
of typhoid fever and of tubercle were to gain admission to dough in a foul bakery, it
is quite possible that they might be distributed to consumers in a condition capable
of setting up disease. The regulation of bakeries, therefore, is a matter in which the
well-being of the community may be far more closely involved than the master bakers
would have us imagine.
"In concluding, we would suggest that bakeries proved to be injurious to workmen
and dangerous to consumers should be forthwith closed. The bakery must either (a)
be reconstructed; (b) be removed to a back yard or to the top of the house ; or (c)
the baker must find other quarters. The journeymen and the public must not go on
suffering because a certain number of bakers have been permitted in the past to carry
on their trade upon too scanty a capital. To allow such evils to continue would be to
run counter to the accepted canon that it is a first duty of Government to look after
the health of its citizens, In the enforcing of structural reforms we would throw the
burden upon the ground landlord and on the house owners, unless, perhaps, where the
occupier is in possession of a long lease, say of fourteen to twenly-one years, not less
than ten of which are unexpired.