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affecting the sanitary condition of bakehouses; viz., by enabling them to enforce sections 3,
33, 34 and 35 of the Factory and Workshop Act, 1878.* The measure was imperfect, falling
far short of the recommendations of the Vestry, but it was a step gained; and the Society of
Medical Officers of Health, desiring to make the most of it, embodied the provisions of law
in a code of ' Suggestions for Regulations with respect to Bakehouses,' which the Vestry
had printed in large type and mounted on cardboard, a copy being supplied for suspension in
each of the bakehouses.†
" When in 1891 a fresh Bill was brought in to ' amend the law relating to factories and
workshops,' the Vestry, on my advice, made a further effort in the direction of bakehouse
reform. A Public Health (London) Bill having also been brought in, the Vestry's appeals
were directed both to the Secretary of State and the President of the Local Government
Board, who had charge of the two measures respectively. In the third monthly report for
that year, specific recommendations were made to secure power of entry to bakehouses for sanitary
inspectors, and power to sanitary authorities to make by-laws for regulating the structure
of the premises and the conduct of the business. The Factory Act gave the desired
power of entry, and, with the Public Health (London) Act, of the same year, increased the
powers of the sanitary authority to enforce measures for securing such improved sanitary
conditions in bakehouses as were practicable in underground premises. At this time the
Public Health Committee of the County Council issued a report covering a good deal of the
subject matter of reform in bakehouses as dealt with in my report for 1881. The co-operation
of the Committee was welcomed, and there was no hesitation in agreeing to their
suggestion that the Council ' should be empowered to make regulations; ' but the Committee
went too far in proposing that ' the Council, as Central Metropolitan Authority, rather
than the local sanitary authority, should have charge of the bakehouses of London.' ' The precedent
of the Public Health (London) Act, 1891 (I said) was in point: the Council should
be empowered to make by-laws, but the duty of enforcing the by-laws should rest with the
sanitary authorities.'
* On the passing of the Act, I prepared an abstract of the provisions relating to bakehouses, with all necessary information
for the guidance of masters and journeymen bakers, a copy of which was furnished to the several occupiers of bakehouses
in the parish.
† The Regulations were as follows :—
" 1. Every bakehouse shall be kept in a cleanly state, and free from effluvia arising from any drain, privy, water
closet or other nuisance. The floors shall be carefully swept at least every twenty-four hours, and the sweepings
shall be immediately placed in an impermeable covered receptacle, and removed from the bakehouse at not
longer intervals than every seven days.
" 2. All the inside walls of the rooms of the bakehouse, and all the ceilings or tops of such rooms, and all the passages
and staircases of the bakehouse, shall either be painted with oil, or varnished, or limewashed. Where painted
with oil or varnished, there shall be three coats of paint or varnish, and the paint or varnish shall be renewed
once at least in every seven years, and shall be washed with hot water and soap once at least in every six months.
Where limewashed the limewashing shall be renewed once at least in every six months. The cleansing should
be done in the months of April and October.
" 3. The troughs and all the utensils used in the making of bread and pastry shall be kept scrupulously clean.
"4. A place on the same level with the bakehouse, and forming part of the same building, shall not be used as a
sleeping place—
(a) Unless it is effectually separated from the bakehouse by a partition extending from the floor to the ceiling ;
(b) Unless there be an external glazed window of at least 9 superficial feet of area, of which at least 4¼
superficial feet are made to open for ventilation.
" 5. No water closet, earth closet, privy, or ash-pit shall be within, or communicate directly with, the bakehouse.
" 6. Any cistern for supplying water to the bakehouse shall be separate and distinct from any cistern for supplying
water to a water closet.
" 7. No drain or pipe for carrying off faecal or sewage matter shall have an opening within the bakehouse, and every
sink-waste, or other pipe used for carrying off surface water within the bakehouse, shall be efficiently trapped
and disconnected from any drain.
" 8. Every bakehouse shall be efficiently lighted, shall be ventilated so as to render harmless all gases and dust, and
shall not be overcrowded while work is carried on therein.
" 9. Every bakehouse shall be used for the purposes of the trade only.
" 10. No animal shall be kept in the bakehouse on any pretence whatever.
" 11. No person suffering, or who has recently suffered, from any infectious disease shall be permitted to enter the
bakehouse, or take part in the manufacture or sale on the premises, of bread, biscuits or confectionery.
" 12. The owner or occupier of a bakehouse shall give immediate notice to the Medical Officer of Health of any case
of infectious disease occurring on the same premises as the bakehouse.
"Penalties.—Every bakehouse in which there is a contravention of sections 3, 33, or 34 of the Factory and
Workshop Act, 1878, which provide for the sanitary condition and cleansing of the bakehouse, shall be deemed to be
not kept in conformity with the Act, and the occupier thereof is liable for default to a fine not exceeding Ten Pounds.
" The use of a bakehouse for sleeping purposes, or of a room on the same level as the bakehouse, insufficiently
separated from it, or insufficiently ventilated and lighted, is punishable under the 35th section of the same act by a
fine not exceeding Twenty Shillings for the first offence, and of a sum not exceeding Five Pounds for every subsequent
oflence.
"An infringement of the 15th section of the Factory and Workshop Act,.1883, which prohibits—
" A direct communication between a water closet, earth closet, privy, or ash-pit, with the bakehouse;
" The supply of water to a bakehouse from a cistern also supplying a water closet;
" The opening into a bakehouse of a drain carrying off faecal or sewage matter—
is punishable by a fine not exceeding Forty Shillings, and a further fine not exceeding Five Shillings for every day
during which the infringement is continued after a conviction."