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86
Outworkers.—A total of 951 lists was received during the year.
Notices in respect of failure to send lists were sent to 95 firms. No
legal proceedings were necessary, but six firms were cautioned.
The lists contained 9,120 names and addresses, of which 5,081 were
in other districts, 4,240 being within the Metropolitan area and 638 in the
London Suburban districts.
The number of individual outworkers in the City at the close of the
year was 1,620, of whom 1,542 were registered as occupying workshops.
The number of premises in which outwork was being carried on was 666.
Note by the Lady Sanitary Inspector.
The drift of high-class business generally from the Ebury Street area is moving
further north. Court dressmakers and other trades of a like nature subject to
seasonal influences have found it more suitable to settle in the neighbourhood of
Grosvenor Street. Owing to changes in fashion the once flourishing industry of
lace-repairing has almost vanished.
A feature of tailoring in what is termed "the West End" is the apparent growth
of the sale of ready-to-wear suits and other garments. This has naturally given rise
to changes in the local industry as regards the demand for workshops and conditions
of employment generally. There has been a tendency to unconventionality in dress
almost entirely confined to the male sex which is reflected in the type of clothes in
greatest demand. The change in habit and outlook, a greater appreciation of the
benefits of outdoor pleasures and recreations, assisted by the motor car, has led in
some measure to the abandonment of the more formal Sunday garments of a former
generation. Nevertheless the high grade workmanship produced in the Savile Row
district stands pre-eminent and there is no evidence of any decline in the quality
of the goods produced there.
In Westminster the following industries have almost disappeared, perhaps by
moving to other districts; lace repairing, hand-made cigarettes, hand laundries,
and small film repair workplaces. The introduction of "talkies" may have played
a part as regards the last-mentioned.
In the Mayfair district somewhat rapid changes in the conversion of residential
streets to shopping purposes are occurring, particularly west of New Bond Street.
With regard to the cheaper women's wear, many of the formerly busy shops in Berwick
Street, Soho, are now empty. There seems to have been an exodus of the cheaper
gown shops to Oxford Street and upper sections of New Bond Street.
C. Hughesdon.