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1902]
182
Outworkers. A circular letter, drawing attention to sec. 107 of the
Act, which requires lists of outworkers to be forwarded to the Borough
Council, was sent to every person carrying on the trades specified in
the Home Secretary's order. These have been on the whole well responded
to, and have enabled the Medical Officer of Health to forward the names
and addresses of nearly 600 home workers to 38 Medical Officers of Health
of other districts, in which those who did not live in Islington resided. On
the other hand the names and addresses of 542 home workers living in
Islington have been received from other Medical Officers of Health, and
their homes were duly visited by your Inspectors.
Kitchens of Restaurants, etc. The case of Bennett v. Harding
(1900. Q. B. 397) decided that "workplaces" included "any place where
work is done permanently, and where people are assembled together to do
work permanently of some kind or other." This decision is one of the
utmost importance and considerably extends the work of the Public Health
Department, particularly in the direction of the kitchens of restaurants.
The conditions under which food is prepared have long been a
scandal, for it has been well known that there has been a great lack of
cleanliness in hotel and other kitchens. In the future it is hoped that
periodical inspection will remove insanitary defects and cause both the
employer and the employed to give more attention to the cleanliness of
the surroundings and of the utensils which they use than has been hitherto
the case. Inspector West undertook the work of inspection and during the
year visited 399 separate kitchens or places where food was prepared for
consumption. These included:—
Restaurant and dining rooms 203
Tea rooms and confectioners 64
Fried fish and stewed eel shops 86
Cooked meat shops 44
Tripe shops 2
399
In many of these places fragments of food were scattered about the
kitchens because they were not provided with either bins, boxes or other means
for collecting or storing refuse food, and consequently it became necessary to
request the owners in 90 instances to supply them. These measures alone
have had a considerable influence in promoting a better state of things
Many places have also been limewashed and cleansed, while other improvements
have also been effected. The inspections will be continued from time
to time, and it is expected now that there will be an end put to the unpleasant
conditions which have hitherto prevailed in many places.