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taken to obtain a reasonable temperature must not interfere with
the purity of the air of any room in which any person is employed.
This proviso is intended to prevent occupiers of such places trusting
to the warmth from the bodies of the workers or to gas jots for
heating rooms. In many of the tailors' and dressmakers' workrooms
gas stoves for heating irons are used, and the fumes of the burnt or
partially burnt gas pass into the room to the detriment of the health
of the workers. To obviate this, instructions have been given to the
Sanitary Inspectors to secure efficient means of ventilation for such
stoves.
From the number of workplaces in Westminster, and especially
those employing female labour, it would have taken the staff a
considerable time to inspect them; it is, therefore, fortunate that the
Home Office, during 1901, entered into an inquiry as to the nature
and the extent of, and condition of, women's employment in West
London, and one Lady Inspector has visited a large number of
workshops in Westminster, 344 visits having been paid to dressmakers
and milliners alone. The reports on the conditions under
which work is carried on in West End dressmakers' establishments
reveal a by no means satisfactory state of affairs ; such conditions of
overcrowding, defective ventilation and heating, dirtiness of workshops,
were amended after the visit, but it is evident that regular
supervision is required. Special mention is made of gold and silver
embroidery (lace and braid), and to theatrical costumiers. Both are
peculiar to Westminster: in the former, questions of light and
ventilation have arisen; in the latter, from the pressure put upon the
costumiers at certain seasons overcroAvding, excessive hours, &c.,
result. This trade is one which calls for special and very constant
inspection. In consequence of the special inspection, 206 instances
of defects were sent by the Lady Inspectors to the City Council in
1901 (106 notices relating to laundries, dressmakers and milliners'
workshops). The nature of the complaints were:—

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