London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Holborn 1932
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Holborn Borough]
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23
At the end of the year there were 620 workshops on the register.
344 employed men only,
52 employed women only, and
224 employed both men and women.
The number of employees is often very small and many of the workshops are in
tenement houses (houses let in lodgings).
No fewer than 155 different industries are carried on in these workshops, among the principal being the following:—
| No. or Workshops Employing | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Men only. | Women only. | Both Sexes. | Total. | |
| Boot makers and repairers | 16 | — | 1 | 17 |
| Builders | 12 | — | — | 12 |
| Carpenters | 11 | — | — | 11 |
| Clock and watch makers | 14 | — | 1 | 15 |
| Dressmakers and ladies' tailors | — | 17 | 21 | 38 |
| Diamond mounters | 9 | — | 3 | 12 |
| Engravers | 13 | — | 2 | 15 |
| Glass blowers | 6 | — | 2 | 8 |
| Jewellers | 25 | — | 11 | 63 |
| Leather goods makers | 6 | — | 4 | 10 |
| Metalworkers | 7 | — | 4 | 11 |
| Tailors | 30 | 4 | 56 | 90 |
Factories.
These visits also afforded an opportunity for extending and revising information
.elating to "factories"' in the Borough. Steps are being taken for the gradual
compilation of a register of such places, and at the end of the year 448 factories were
on the register. Workshops arc automatically converted, at a very small cost, into
factories by the installation of a small electric motor; the health conditions then may
no longer be inspected by the Borough Council's staff except as regards sanitary
accommodation.
The 448 factories include 50 different industries. In 225 cases men only were
employed, in 18 women only, and in 205 both sexes.
The more important industries carried on in these factories are :—
Bookbinding 18
Engineering 46
Jewellers' work 17
Metal work 12
Printing 102
The following is a summary in tabular form of the work done by the Inspectors
in factories, workshops and workplaces in the year 1932:—