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of requirement has been made as regards London. The Home Secretary has issued an order prescribing
the accommodation to be provided in extra-Metropolitan factories and workshops. It
became necessary in one case to take proceedings for failure to comply with the provisions
of the section, and the offender was mulcted in a fine of five pounds, with costs. This
subject was dealt with by the delegates of the Metropolitan Borough Councils at the Conference
in July 1904, and a resolution passed recommending standards desirable to be adopted by sanitary
authorities in enforcing the provisions of the section. The more satisfactory course would be
to obtain an order from the Home Secretary applicable to the Metropolis.
PUBLIC LAVATORIES FOR WOMEN.
Arising out of a complaint, by one of the Council's lady sanitary inspectors, with reference
to the improper use, as water-closets, of the free urinettes provided for women at the lavatory at
Talbot Road, an enquiry was made as to the extent of free accommodation provided in other
boroughs, which resulted in the submission of a report by Miss de Chaumont, which may be summarised
as follows:—
1. In seven boroughs (Greenwich, St. Marylebone, Wandsworth, H 'lborn, Westminster,*
Lewisham and Bethnal Green) there are no free conveniences, nor have the attendants
any discretionary power to allow free use of the paying water-closets.
2. In three boroughs (Shoreditch, Lambeth, and Finsbury) no free conveniences have
been provided, but the attendants have discretionary power.
3. In twelve boroughs free water-closets are provided: (a) in eight cases (Islington,
Hampstead, Camberwell, Deptford, St. Pancras, Battersea, Paddington, and Woolwich) with
doors made to fa.London) with swing doors only.
4. In one borough (Bermondsey) free accommodation is provided without any means
of privacy.
5. In one borough (Stepney) one free water-closet with door and fastening, and two
free urinettes with curtains have been provided. But " the fact of there being free accommodation
is not made conspicuous."
6. In three boroughs (Hammersmith, Chelsea, and Stoke Newington) no public conveniences
for women have been provided.
7. From one borough (Hackney) no information was received.
Miss de Chaumont in concluding her report stated that it is "the almost unanimous opinion
of the women sanitary inspectors throughout London that free conveniences for women are much
abused." She suggested that the urinettes at T albot Road should be "converted into ordinary
water-closets, and a charge made for the use of them, discretionary power being given to the
attendants to allow free use of one or more of them by women obviously unable to pay the customary
fee." She added that it was within her knowledge that a "considerable number of the
persons who use the free urinettes are in a position to pay a fee, but decline to do so, having power
of access to the free accommodation."
The report was referred to the Works Committee who subsequently removed certain causes
for complaint at the Talbot Road lavatory, and arranged for the free use of two of the water-closets
by women professing inability to pay the small fee chargeable.
CLEANSING OF PERSONS ACT, 1897.
This Act enables the sanitary authority to allow any person infested with vermin to have
the use of the apparatus provided for cleansing the body and clothing, and authorises expenditure,
on buildings, appliances, and attendants, that may be required for the carrying out of the Act.
Nominal effect was given to the Act soon after it passed, by an arrangement made by the late
Vestry with the Guardians, whereby cleansing and disinfecting apparatus, at the able-bodied
'In the City of Westminster free urinettes, screened by curtains, were provided originally; but having been much
abused they were subsequently converted into water-closets, for the use of which piyrmnt is now required.