View report page

110
LICENSED COW HOUSES.
Two cow-houses, in North Kensington, were licensed by the County Council in October.
The premises were regularly visited by the sanitary inspectors, and inspected, in September, by the
Public Health Committee. Only five cows were found on the premises; in bygone days, within my
experience, there were 28 licensed premises, containing 500 cows.
There has been a considerable reduction in the number of cow-houses in the Metropolis,
as a whole : viz., from 1,044 in 1880, to 290 in 1902. The County Council intimated to cowkeepers,
some time since, that their Public Health Committee were of opinion that in the case of premises
. newly licensed, the recommendation of the Royal Commission on tuberculosis, that no cow-house
should be erected within 100 feet of a dwelling house, should be observed. The Council can, of
course, enforce this condition if they think fit.
The names of the licensees, and the localities of the Kensington cow-houses are as follows:—
187, Walmer Road - - - Mr. Arnsby. | 5, Ledbury Mews - - - Mr. Liddiard.
•
Dairies Order.—The Council, as Local Authority for the registration of milkshops, etc.,
received last year 13 applications for registration; a subject with which I dealt in a report to the
Public Health Committee (24th September 1901) in relation to applications where the premises
could not be deemed suitable for the storage of milk. At many small general provision shops, milk
is sold in insignificant quantity, usually from a small earthenware vessel standing on the counter,
and mainly for the convenience of customers ; but also in self-defence, lest customers should be
induced to transfer their dealings to shops where this necessary article of diet can be obtained.
The Local Authority appear to have no power to refuse compliance with applications for
registration, but only to enforce the regulations made under the provisions of the Order. The
County Council, when local authority, always acted on the principle that applicants for registration
must be registered; but usually sent a letter to persons whose premises were regarded as unfit. The
vendor in such a case was told, " that the premises were quite unsuitable for carrying on the sale of
milk," and requested without delay, to " provide a suitable place for storing milk, and for washing
and storing the utensils, or at once cease the sale of milk."
The regulations dealing with the subject are to the following effect:—
" 8. Every purveyor of milk, or person selling milk by retail, shall not keep milk for sale in any
place where it would be liable to becoma infected or contaminated by gases or effluvia arising
from any sewers, drains, gullies, cesspools, or closets, or by any offensive effluvia from
putrid or offensive substances, or by impure air, or by any offensive or deleterious gases or
substances.
" 4. Every purveyor of milk, or person selling milk by retail, shall only keep milk for sale in
clean receptacles; and all utensils used in connection with the keeping or sale of such milk
shall be at all times kept clean.
"5. Every purveyor of milk, or person selling milk by retail, shall at all times employ such
means, and adopt such precautions as may be necessary for preserving the purity of milk,
and for protecting it against infection or coutamination.
The containing vessels at the little shops referred to are kept clean; but the air of the premises is far
from " pure;" the commonly prevailing odour being that of mineral oil, or some one or other of the
miscellaneous articles of food, cooked or uncooked, vended thereat. I should be glad to see a better
state of affairs, but do not know how the poor people in the localities referred to could obtain the
modicum of milk they want were the regulations strictly enforced.
At the close of the year 283 premises were on the register.
Fried-Fish Shop Business.—In connection with proposed amendments to the Public
Health (London) Act, 1891, elsewhere referred to (page 105), the Sanitary Committee of the late
Vestry, expressed the opinion that the business of a fried-fish seller should be added to the list of
those specified in section 19, in order to the regulation of the conduct of the business, and so as to
prevent it from being an annoyance to adjoining occupiers. This business, undoubtedly, gives rise
to nuisance when carried on negligently, without necessary precautions to prevent the escape of
effluvia, and is a not infrequent subject of complaint: decided cases, moreover, class it as an
' offensive business.' One of the latest of such cases, Duke of Devonshire v. Brookshaw, was tried,
in 1899, in the Chancery Division, by Mr. Justice Kekewich ; the plaintiff claiming an injunction
to restrain the defendant from carrying on, at Eastbourne, the business of a fried-fish seller, or
using the house for the business, in breach of a covenant not to carry on any offensive trade or