London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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Kensington 1896

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Kensington Parish]

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95
know, at present, the locality of many of the workshops, but
probably their whereabouts could be ascertained from Her
Majesty's Superintending Inspector of Workshops, &c., were
there a possibility of taking up this branch of sanitary work.
Sanitary Supervision of Laundries.—The "Abstract,
as prescribed by one of Her Majesty's Principal Secret arics of
State," required to be constantly affixed in the laundries
which are "workshops," i.e., laundries in which no steam,
water, or other mechanical power is used, has been duly
circulated. Under the head of sanitation, it states that
"sanitation, which includes provisions as to cleanliness, overcrowding,
ventilation, limewashing, &c., is enforced by the
officers of the local Authority"; and, in it, attention is called
to other requirements as follows:—
"In every room in a laundry there must be at least 250 cubic feet of
space for each person employed during ordinary hours, and 400 cubic feet
during overtime. A notice is to be affixed in the laundry. showing how
many persons may be employed in each room.
"Sufficient sanitary convenience, with separate accommodation for
each sex, must be provided.
"All inside walls of rooms, and all ceilings and tops of rooms, and all
passages and staircases to be limewashed every 14 months, or, if painted
with oil or varnished within seven years to be washed every 14
months.
"If the occupier, or a contractor employed by him. causes or allows
wearing apparel to be cleaned or repaired in any house whilst any inmate
of such house is suffering from scarlet fever or small-pox, he shall be
liable to a fine not exceeding £10."
The occupier is required to ascertain the cubic space of
the several workrooms in the laundry, so as to determine how
many persons may occupy each room, and it is the duty of
the occupier to affix the notice, which is in a prescribed form,
and is printed on ordinary paper adaptable for pasting on the
wall. All of the requirements above set out appear to come
within the definition of "sanitation," and, therefore, will have
to be enforced by your Vestry.