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95
or cafes where light meals could be had were scarce. Very few women were employed
in offices, and the lack of speedy and convenient transport from the suburbs
discouraged those with leisure and money to spend from journeying to town in the
midday period. The rise of the tea shop type of restaurant has proceeded with,
or may have stimulated, the conditions with which we are familiar to-day.
Enterprising firms such as the Aerated Bread Company and J. Lyons & Co. were
early in the field, and these and many others supply an ever-present need among
the daily incomers to the City whether occupied in business or on pleasure bent.
I should like to conclude this note by commenting upon the improvement in
housing conditions, in places of work and in the food of the people. In these forty
years there has been a great advance in the quality of food, its preparation and
storage. Adulteration was six times as common in the early part of the century.
Unsound food is very rarely exposed now for sale thanks in large measure to
methods of cold storage. The conditions of restaurant kitchens, even in the well
established, were sometimes deserving of reproach thirty-five to forty years ago.
Now it is found profitable from every point of view to have large light and airy
kitchens and proper facilities for the comfort and cleanliness of their employees.
John Sanderson.
HOUSING.
The housing survey carried out in such great detail in the period
1933-35 forms the basis of all work in connection with the housing of
the working-classes in the City. It is on the data then obtained that
housing needs are assessed. Tenancies may change but the character
of the buildings, except those reconditioned in whole or in part on specifications
approved by the Housing Committee, do not alter greatly.
The City Council in instituting this survey to a very great extent
anticipated the survey required under the Overcrowding Act, and in
consequence both the expenditure and the work entailed in meeting the
requirements of the Minister and the London County Council under this
Act were very much less than would ordinarily have been the case. There
is, therefore, in the possession of the City Council full and exact information
of the housing conditions of the working-classes in the City.
In 1935 the City Council, having fully considered the survey reports,
adumbrated its housing policy for the next ten years and some of the
implications of this policy are referred to in this report. The aspects of
clearance, demolition and closure and the alleviation of overcrowding are
commented upon. In order adequately to undertake the execution of
the City Council's policy certain of the temporary staff engaged on housing
were retained and other permanent appointments were made. Even