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73
Personal Cleansing Station.
The new Establishment Laundry and Personal Cleansing
Station were opened by the Mayoress, Mrs. F. C. R. Douglas, M.A.,
on the 3rd November. The new building containing these two
institutions has been erected on part of the land belonging to the
Latchmere Public Baths. It is a composite building, the ground
storey being occupied by the new Establishment Laundry and a
disinfecting plant for the use of the Cleansing Station. The upper
storey is occupied by the new Personal Cleansing Station.
The new station on the first floor is approached from Sheepcote
Lane by an entrance door and concrete staircase 3 ft. 6 ins. wide, the
wall being in part lined with green glazed tiles. The Station
contains separate accommodation for males and females. Each
division contains two bath cubicles, one of which is fitted with a
head-cleaning apparatus in addition to the bath, a douche compartment,
undressing and dressing cubicles, two waiting rooms, one for
persons awaiting cleansing and one for persons waiting while their
clothing is being disinfected, a room for the nurse and attendant,
sanitary accommodation, &c.
The station is lighted by two lantern lights, and by windows on
three sides. The walls are lined with white glazed bricks throughout.
The division forming the cubicles and dressing boxes are of "Shipwood"
glazed partition bricks. Special attention has been given
to the cubicle doors to avoid joints and crevices which would harbour
vermin.
Heating is provided by five grilled radiators, each with 150 ft.
of heating surface. They are supplied with steam from a boiler in
the disinfectant chamber on the ground floor.
The disinfestation of the verminous clothing of the persons
cleansed is carried out by means of a gas-heated steam disinfecting
plant fitted into the brick wall which divides the room into two
compartments, each of which is thereby separated from the other.
There is therefore a clean side and an infested side. Lifts convey the
clothing from either of these compartments to or from the station
above.
At the official opening by the Mayoress the following memorandum
was prepared on the instructions of the Health Committee
showing the statutory powers and duties of the Council under the
Cleansing of Persons Act and the work which had been accomplished
since these powers were adopted in Battersea in 1906:—
Memorandum from the Medical Officer of Health.
The Cleansing of Persons Act, 1897, permits local authorities to
provide cleansing and disinfection for those requiring such facilities, and
for this purpose “Any local authority shall have the power when in
their discretion they shall see fit to permit any person who shall apply
to the said authority . . . to have the use, free of charge, of the
apparatus (if any) which the authority possesses for cleansing the person