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(out of 232 premises), which gives a percentage of 50 as being
sanitarily defective. This year it has been necessary to serve 94
notices (out of 230 premises) which gives a percentage of 40.8.
This would appear to show some improvement, but it is evident
that continuance of strict supervision is necessary.
The chief defects were dirty floors, walls and ceilings, some
of them extremely so; unclean yards or areas where food was
being prepared ; a number of premises without proper or sufficient
dustbin accommodation ; and a number also in which the
sanitary conveniences were either quite insufficient or defective.
In a certain number of cases infringement of the Bye-laws
were met with in respect to the regulation that no sanitary convenience
shall communicate directly with a room in which food is
prepared. Whilst it may be said that many of the proprietors
of. these establishments conduct their business in a suitable manner
and wholly within the meaning of the law, the same cannot be said
of all. Some of the kitchens and cellars were in a bad condition,
and food prepared in them could not but be open to grave
criticism.
Sweetmeat Makers.—We have ill Finsbury eleven manufacturers
or makers of sweetmeats. One or two of these are large
firms with extensive premises, whose produce has a world-wide
market. Seven or eight of them, on the other hand, are in a small
way of business, and naturally require more supervision from us.
They supply local shops. In one of the Central Districts of
Finsbury there are some 60 shops selling sweetmeats, but in only
three cases do the vendors actually make sweets. These workplaces
have been carefully inspected, and various recommendations made
for the protection of the produce from contamination.
Food Stalls.— In Chapel Street, Exmouth Street and Whitecross
Street there is carried on a considerable food trade from
stalls. These are periodically inspected at irregular periods every
week, including Sundays and Saturday nights. A number of
seizures or confiscations of diseased or unsound food have been
made during 1904, and in some cases prosecution has followed.
One of the most difficult foods to inspect is shell-fish, and from