View report page

One direct effect of the pood and Drugs (Milk Dairies and
Artificial cream) Act 1950 has been the disappearance of the
small retail bottler In London. When the Act came Into force
there were 22 small shops In the Borough where milk, was bottled
on the premises. This small-scale bottling is no longer being
done, all milk is obtained by the retail shop keeper in bottles
or cartons filled at the premises where the milk is pasteurised.
There are two large milk bottling depots situated in the
Borough each with Its own private Railway siding enabling them
to receive milk by rail and road from all parts of the country.
Rail tanks, each holding 3,000 gallons of milk, are received
daily and a large quantity of milk is also delivered to these
depots by road tankers each holding the same quantity. The total
quantity of milk handled by these two depots is some 180,000
gallons daily.
A proportion of this milk is pasteurised and distributed in
chums, some 12,000 gallons are sterilised in bottles and the remainder
is pasteurised and bottled. This involves the washing and
filling of about eight million bottles a week.
The milk from one of these depots is distributed in the North
West London area to 29 retail distributing depots Which in turn
supply the company's shops and milk roundsmen. Milk from the other
bottling depot is distributed to the smaller dairymen who have no
facilities themselves for pasteurising and bottling milk, and to
hospitals, hotels and restaurants etc., covering the greater London
area and beyond, reaching as far as camberley and Gerrards cross.
Designated Milk.