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103
BAKEHOUSES.
The bakehouses, to the number of 138, viz., 74 in North
Kensington, and 64 in South Kensington, were, as usual,
regularly inspected, and such action was taken, in individual
cases, as was found to be necessary for ensuring compliance
with the sanitary provisions of the Factory and Workshop
Acts, 1878 to 1895, and the Public Health (London) Act, 1891.
In the annual report for 1894 (pp. 152 to 166 inclusive), when
dealing with the " regulation of bakehouses," I summarised
the steps which had then been recently taken by the County
Council with the object of securing such an amendment of
the law as would enable the Sanitary Authority to exercise an
efficient control over bakehouses. The Council thought that
the Factory and Workshops Bill, which was to be brought in
by the Government in 1895, would " afford an opportunity for
amending the law relating to bakehouses," and the Public
Health Committee of that body waited upon the President of
the Local Government Board to press their views with
reference to the matter. The President stated that it was
improbable that any clause would be inserted in the proposed
Bill dealing with London bakehouses, as the Bill would have
reference to the whole country, and not particularly to London,
and he suggested that the Council itself should introduce a
Bill. In accordance with the Committee's recommendation,
the Parliamentary Committee was, in January, 1895, instructed
to prepare a Bill amending the law relating to bakehouses in
London, in accordance with the Council's views ; but no
action appears to have been taken. One provision with
reference to bakehouses is contained in the Factory and
Workshop Act, 1895, in section 27 (3), to the effect that
" a place underground shall not be used as a bakehouse unless
it is so used at the commencement of this Act," i.e., at the
beginning of the year, 1896. The value of this provision has
been reduced almost to the vanishing point by magisterial
rulings to the effect that the disuse of an underground bakehouse
subsequent to the 1st January, 1896, by the premises