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51
Home Workers and Sweated Industries Enquiry by
Select Committee, July, 1907.
Evidence of John Foot, Associate Member of the Royal Institute of
Public Health, Chief Sanitary Inspector to the Metropolitan Borough of
Bethnal Green, who says:—
"I have had about twenty years experience as a Sanitary
Officer, and for the last thirteen years I have held the post of
Chief Sanitary Inspector to the Borough Council of Bethnal
Green.
"During this later period it has been my duty on behalf of the
Authority to enforce the Public Health (London) Act, together
with those Sections of the Factory and Workshop Acts and all
other Statutes enforceable by the Borough Council which in
London acts as the Sanitary Authority.
"Bethnal Green is an industrial community entirely occupied
by persons of the working classes, and homework is carried on to
a large extent in various trades and industries.
"The area of our Borough is about 755 statutory acres; the
rateable value £550,636; the population for the last census
129,680, and is now estimated to be 130,401; the number of rated
premises is 21,617.
"It will thus be seen that our population is densely packed,
there being in (act about 172 persons to the acre, and also that
our average assessment is only a little over £25.
"The number of workshops and workplaces, exclusive of those
factories that are under the jurisdiction of the Factory Department
of the Home Office, is 2,070, of which a large number
would be domestic workshops.