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made in Finsbury, by M. A., a registered maker in the Borough
One of these was found to be satisfactory, and one poisonous.
A sample of milk, used in the manufacture of Finsbury ice—
cream, was also found to be poisonous. It should be added that
one of the shops mostly implicated in the City outbreak was also
supplied by an ice-cream maker of this Borough. It appears that
81 per cent, of the shops in the City, where ice-cream is sold, are
supplied by makers outside the City, some being in Finsbury.
We found, on investigation, that the poisonous samples of ice—
cream, which had been sold in the City, were made in this
Borough, in insanitary premises. In accordance with this finding,
we took action for remedying the state of affairs. But, in point
of fact, arrangements had already been made for dealing with
the insanitary property in question. The outbreak well illustrates
the extreme importance of a stricter supervision of this industry.
The new regulations of the London County Council Act, 1902,
have come into force none too soon, and they will be duly
enforced by us.
Restaurants and Eating-Houses.--During the year
I have inspected the Restaurants, Eating-Houses, Coffee Shops,
etc., situated within the Borough. There are a total of 220 such
places in which 375 men and 589 women are occupied in the
preparation of food. The total is, therefore, 964, but this figure
does not include waitresses of whom there are a considerable
number in the larger establishments. The 964 persons
enumerated are actually engaged in the preparation of food and
in some cases live on the premises. I also ascertained by the
courtesy of proprietors the approximate number of persons using
these restaurants and eating-houses daily. The sum total of such
persons is 56,182. This is probably considerably under the
mark, as there is naturally a tendency to understate on the part
of the proprietors. Of the 220 establishments there are eleven
described as " stewed-eel shops" and 27 engaged exclusively
in the cooking and sale of fried fish.* Seventeen are restaurants
o The eels and fish sold in Finsbury are commonly obtained from Billingsgate.
Some of the larger dealers, however, obtain their supplies direct from Grimsby,
Hull and Lowestoft.