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142
and Milkshops Orders, the various Public Health Acts, and the
General Powers Acts of the London County Council.
It is a condition precedent to registration that no offensive
material (such as, for example, paraffin oil) shall be sold from
the same counter or from the same room as that from which the
milk is sold, or sold from any place in or near that in which the
milk is stored.
The sale of paraffin oil or other offensive material from the
premises is not objected to provided the oil is stored and sold
outside the shop.
The floor of the chandlers' shop must be free from accumulations
of titter, or of stored shop material, which would render it
difficult or impossible to ensure the efficient cleansing and proper
sweeping of the shop day by day.
The shop milk must be kept in an approved vessel with an
imperforate metal cover. It must be confessed, however, that in
actual practice it is very difficult to secure satisfactory conditions
of milk sale in these small general shops. They are often dusty.
In one such shop, each loaf of bread was being wrapped in paper " to
keep the dust out." The shopkeeper observed: " If it wasn't
for the dust, I should be a lazy woman." In these dusty shops,
the milk vessel is kept in a special closed glass case. Many shops
are overcrowded with stock; in mean streets they are the local
" Whiteley's," they sell everything they can find room for.
Two general shops were inspected for registration for the sale
of milk in 1912. The floor space, and stock in each shop are set
out below:—
Shop A.—The space in front of the counter was 8 ft. 8 ins. by
2 ft. 10 ins. The articles sold were milk, bread, seed cake,
currant cake, dripping, margarine, sweets, several kinds of packet
teas, several kinds of cocoa, many brands of sauce, corned beef,