Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Report on the sanitary condition and vital statistics during the year 1905
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The works were completed and in due course the
certificate was applied for. The premises were now
visited by the Public Health Committee; the structural
condition was found to be fairly satisfactory but the
bakehouse was very filthy. Moreover, the original intention
of the owner to devote the shop above the bakehouse to
the sale of bread had been abandoned, and the premises
had been leased to a tailor who was then in occupation.
The upper part of the house was let off in tenements
and occupied by a number of dirty aliens, who were in
the habit of throwing their slops out of window into the
back yard. This yard, which is level with the bakehouse
floor and common to the whole house, was in a very
filthy condition. The Committee took into consideration
the whole facts of the case and refused to grant the
certificate until the original agreement had been
plied with and some responsible person placed in charge
of the whole premises. The house was visited from
time to time by the Inspector of the District, who reported
that the bakehouse, which was in constant use,
was kept reasonably clean. This condition, however,
was not maintained, and the bakehouse was permitted to
lapse into its previously insanitary state. I visited the
bakehouse on several occasions and never found it
satisfactory. The floor was always dirty, and the tables
and utensils filthy; the men employed were in the habit
of smoking whilst at work and spat all over the place.
By direction of the Public Health Committee the
occupier was summoned to Worship Street, and fined
40/- and 23/- costs. The fine was paid, but very little
improvement resulted and, as we were advised that we
had no locus standi under the Factory Acts in a