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IV.—FACTORIES AND WORKSHOPS.
In Table VIII. of the Appendix will be found particulars of inspection of factories and
workshops and the action taken, and in annexed table some particulars regarding the number
of workshops on the register with the number of persons employed. In 1904 there were 476
workshops on the register against 322 in 1903.
Including bakehouses, of which there are 105, the total is 581. The number is being
gradually increased, but I do not think we have got more than two-thirds of those that exist in
Bermondsey on the books.
I have urged in each report the advisability of employing a female inspector for this
branch of the administration, but the Council (when I brought the matter up this spring)
decided against it.
Home Work.
There were 477 outworkers' premises on the register in 1904, against 345 in 1903.
Several of these are on the workshops' register. 24 lists were sent in by firms in Bermondsey
which give out work, and those names which received work outside the Borough were duly
forwarded to their respective boroughs. There is some difficulty getting firms to forward these
lists regularly, but there are some signs of improvement in this respect. They were written to
two or three times during the year.
Very often the inspectors in the course of their house-to-house visitation come across an
outworker whose name has not been received.
Occasionally they refuse to tell the name of the firm for which they work; this happened
at least once last year. Unfortunately, there does not appear to be any provision in the Act to
compel the outworker in such case to give correct information.
One case of enteric fever occurred in the home of an outworker in St. James' Road
during the year. The firm giving the work was immediately notified of it, and no more work
was given out until the house and articles in it likely to retain infection were disinfected after
the death of the patient on September 6th, 1904.
Bakehouses.
There are at present 105 retail bakehouses in the Borough, viz., 41 underground and 64
above. Of the underground 33 are in use and 8 not. Six of these were not in use at the time
the Factory and Workshop Act came into force and two were not granted certificates as the
owners did not comply with the requirements of the Council. Of the 64 overground bakehouses
56 are in use and 8 not.
The bakehouses were all visited twice during the year, and the usual requirements as to
limewashing were complied with. The improvements in connection with the underground
bakehouses were fully dealt with in last year's report.