View report page

30
BAKEHOUSES.
The inspection and improvement of Bakehouses under the
Act which had been passed in the previous year, 1883, more
seriously engaged the attention of the Sanitary Department.
The following Regulations indicating the requirements of the
Vestry were forwarded to every occupier of a bakehouse, and
each bakehouse was visited by one of the Sanitary Inspectors,
and a notice sent pointing out in detail any alteration which
was needed. Later I visited all the premises personally,
and found that of two hundred and eleven bakehouses,
forty-nine were more or less dirty, a few of them so
dirty that I felt it my duty to recommend the Vestry to
institute proceedings against the occupier. To some extent this
uncleanliness was fostered by insufficient light within the bakehouse,
for others there was not even this excuse. It is often the
custom of persons employed in bakehouses either only to sweep
the floors at long intervals, or to brush such matter as falls
upon them beneath the troughs, where, in many cases, it is
allowed to lie tor an indefinite time. The statement is usually
made that it is removed from its temporary resting place once a
week, but even if this be done, it is insufficient, the requirements
of cleanliness demand that the sweepings of the bakehouse
should be daily removed and placed in sacks or other suitable
receptacles.
In three instances I found the bakehouse used as a coal
cellar, and in one fowls were kept within it; in two instances
materials used in the preparation of bread and pastry were
stored in adjoining premises, which decency should forbid being
used for such a purpose. In two bakehouses I fouud that the
flour room was used for sleeping purposes.
In seventy-eight bakehouses there was need for some structural
alterations, such as the improvement of water supply, the better
trapping of the drainage, or the abolition of a water-closet either
within or ventilating into the bakehouse.
As a result of my inspection, the occupier of one bakehouse
was summoned before the Magistrate, and fined for neglecting
to maintain the bakehouse in a cleanly condition. Other
occupiers then complied with the Vestry's requirements.
At the end of the year there was but one bakehouse which
required the immediate attention of the Sanitary Department.