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Parish of St. George the Martyr, Southwark.
producer. We may add that the view as to the possible spread of disease by means of
bread has been widely adopted in India, where several outbreaks of typhoid fever i
have been ascribed to bread baked in the native bazaars.
Tn London, and no doubt to a lesser extent in most of the large towns
throughout the kingdom, there are many basement rooms used as workplaces
that are unfit for the purpose. Indeed, for the most part, as in the case
of the underground bakeries, they are simply cellars that have been utilised
for the housing of workmen. Such adapted cellars are almost always low,
damp, airless, and liable to drain and sewer pollution. Nor can these defects,
in the absence of proper statutory powers, be remedied by the medical officer
of health. The most he can do is to check the grosser defects in the rare instances in
which they are brought under his official notice. Until a rigid system of house-to-
house visitation is the rule it seems likely that ninety-nine out of a hundred underground
workshops will escape any sanitary control whatever. In the present state of the law
it is only when the underground room- is'used as a sleeping place that the medical
officor of health is vested with any efficient powers, Even then the law is evaded.
The statute applies only to underground places that are let separately for use as
dwellings. The tenant, accordingly, has simply to rent a room in the upper part of
tho house to escape the condition of separate occupation of the basement. By thus
renting an upstairs room a baker may actually sleep in the basement with his family
alongside of his bakery, and sua}) his fingers at the law.
In tho course of our investigations into the facts of the underground bakeries the
question naturally arose—Can an ordinary cella1' basement be converted into a healthy
workshop? Or to put tho matter into other words—Can the downstairs chamber of a
dwelling house, almost or altogether underground and with no outside area or proper r
windows, bo made struotually fit for the occupation of workmen? This question,
after careful consideration, wo believe can be answered in the affirmative.
To convert an ordinary cellar into a wholesome workshop, however, requires no
little structural alteration. Such a task, in our opinion, can be performed only by the
observance of certain essentials, first among which may be placed the provision of an
outside open area. The difficulty of getting room for such an area in streets where
the houses abut on the pavement is on doubt great. We believe, however, that it can
be in most instances surmounted by throwing back the front of the shop and borrowing, g
so to speak, space for the area from beneath the upper overhanging portion of the
house. Of this " borrowed area" we shall speak more in detail later on.
The vital points of construction to be provided for are :
1. Cubic Space and Height.—The height of the workshop should be at least 8 feet
from floor to ceiling. In altering premises this measurement may be attained, if:
necessary, by deepening existing levels and by underpinning the foundations. As to