View report page

172
section (7-i,) requiring that " sufficient ventilation shall be
maintained " would appear to throw some onus upon workers
themselves. We have frequently found that even where ample
means of ventilation is provided workers themselves prevent
ventilation by not maintaining in operation the means provided.
(d) Drainage of Floors where wet processes are carried on.—
The only " wet processes" carried on in Finsbury, speaking
generally, are small laundries, of which there are a considerable
number. In two instances it has been necessary to order more
adequate drainage.
(e) Provision of Suitable and Sufficient Sanitary Conveniences.—
In respect to this matter we have found it necessary to take
considerable action. Speaking of small workshops it must be
said in the first place that these sanitary conveniences are situated
in the back yards near the workshops as a rule, and do not gain
in suitability on that account; in the second place, they were
constructed for the use of the residents in the house, at one time
a single family, and latterly several families living in the
tenement system, and now have to serve also as the sanitary
convenience for the workshop. Consequently we have one
sanitary convenience, not infrequently ill-situated, acting for the
house and workshop. This is not desirable but it is impracticable
in many cases to arrange otherwise. It is obvious how this state
of things has come to be. One family in former days occupied
the whole house and possessed a workshop, say, on the
ground floor or in the back yard. Prosperity of trade
necessitated the engagement of one or two additional
workers not belonging to the family. Sometimes such
workers lived in the house, in other cases they lived
elsewhere. Eventually, perhaps, the owner himself moved out
and sub-let his house in tenements, retaining the ground floor and
the workshop. Thus we have the present position :—a tenement
house containing 3 or 4 families, a workshop in the back yard,
the employees of which come in from other districts. The
sanitary convenience acts for both parties, the residents and