View report page

224
1909]
Some of the workshops enumerated are really very little more than domestic workshops
employing in the busy time one or two persons. As will be noticed from the list, dressmaking is
numerically the most important. This classification includes wholesale dressmaking, private or
"bespoke" dressmaking being somewhat, in Islington at least, a decaying industry. Some of the
industries which were prominent some years ago have lately shown signs of falling off, such as blouse
and artificial flower making—though possibly this is only a temporary change—whilst other industries
such as fur-pointing and fur toque making have come to the front.
There appears a tendency in workshop occupiers not to be content with one line of business
only, but to fill in idle or slack times with other kinds of work, sometimes quite distinct in character.
Thus, for example, in the case of one workshop, fur work, millinery, and belt making are all being
done, the work fitted in so that the workers are kept going all the year. This aptitude for running
fresh enterprises applies particularly to wholesale workers, and in the case of private dressmaking
appears almost entirely absent as there is not perhaps the same opportunity of coming in contact
with the demand for various articles that those workshop occupiers have who work for the City or
West end, and are consequently more in touch with conditions there.
One workshop was found during the year which was quite unsuitable for use as a workplace
Rag sorting was being done in a basement room practically without light or air, which was
approached through a trap door in the floor of the shop overhead, this door being mostly kept
closed. Employment was forbidden here and the premises have been kept under observation
since then to prevent any further employment under these conditions. This is, of course, exceptional,
as workshops in Islington, speaking generally, are very respectable.
The majority of laundries on the register now are under the Factory Act, few still remaining
as domestic industries. Under the new regulations regarding laundries, which came into force at
the beginning of 1908, all laundries employing one person have been brought under the Factory Act.
This has necessitated the paving and draining of washhouse floors and the regulation of the number
of persons employed according to cubic capacity. Another important provision which has affected
very much the condition of laundries is that of separating the store from the ironing-room or table
in such a way as to save the women from excessive heat. This is a very necessary provision and is
being enforced by H.M. Inspector as being a matter of temperature which is not dealt with directly
by the Local Authority. Some of the hand laundries have installed machinery and become factories,
but this change is not by any means becoming universal. Many people object to steam laundries
on account of the alleged wear and tear of the garments, and will only patronize those laundries
where power is not used. This fact tends to keep hand laundry work from dying out. As a matter
of fact much of the work sent to hand laundries is sent out again to steam laundries, this being
a cheaper arrangement than employing workers and one that gives less trouble. The larger laundries
might almost be considered as Outworkers or Contractors for the smaller, but the matter has
not been gone into from this standpoint as all are under inspection anyhow.
One matter in connection with laundries to which my attention has been called more than
once is that the public washhouses are used by people for the purpose of gain. Women do not only
their own washing there but perhaps take the linen of four or five neighbours and spend entire days
there washing. In this way they manage to do a certain amount of laundry work without having to
conform to the requirements of the Factory Act. The occupiers of laundries in poor neighbourhoods
where this practice is likely to occur are inclined to find fault with the system as interfering
with their legitimate profits. They say that sometimes a woman may do the washing for a whole
street in the public washhouses taking employees in with her to assist, but this statement is possibly
exaggerated.