View report page

65
number of occasions that by the extension of offices, workshops, public buildings,
street improvements, and other modes of displacement of the resident population,
the occupants of more central parts have been driven into St. Pancras;
furthermore, the number of casual workers in the markets and business premises
who are employed by the hour and the day in the more central parts of
London is very large, and a considerable proportion of this class live in St.
Pancras; these casual workers, who would not be returned as employed by any
particular firm, would not appear in an inquiry at business houses, and even
by inquiry at dwelling houses in St. Pancras it is doubtful whether they
could give any one business or locality in which they were engaged as workers.
The late Woman Inspector, who dealt with outworkers in stores, workshops,
and factories, stated that the outworkers in the tailoring trade live principally
outside St. Pancras, and mostly in the East End, but in the dressmaking trade
the large majority live inside St. Pancras, and are employed in the West End,
mostly in Westminster, some in Marylebone, and some also in the City. The
number of outworkers employed by dressmakers is very much larger than
that employed by tailors, and the question is further complicated by the fact
that outworkers usually work for several firms. Generally speaking, the lower
down in the scale of skill a worker's employment lies, the nearer he or she must
live to the work; also, the more irregular the work the nearer must the dwelling
be. Again, the more of an odd-jobbing nature the work is, the nearer must the
house lie; so that piece-workers, repairers, and those who have early and late
hours, must live close to their work. Few of the casual street traders and
hawkers, costers, odd-jobbers, &c., live in central London, they live mostly
in the middle zone, and a part of St. Pancras is in that zone, and it is a
very 6erious question whether St. Pancras is to house this class at the
expense of the rates.
In answer to the question whether your Council would at once undertake
the inquiry in the Borough, I reported that the Small-pox outbreak should
require all our efforts, and that it would be extremely inopportune to start an
elaborate inquiry of this kind.
§ 4.—SCHOOLS.
In accordance with the resolution adopted by the late Vestry on the 17th
February, 1897, " that Infants' and Girls' Schools should be inspected from
time to time by the Woman Inspector, 118 such inspections and 2 re-inspections
were made at the 68 grant receiving schools on the register.
§ 5.—FACTORIES AND WORKSHOPS,
Factory and Workshoj) Act, 1901.—This Act w8s passed in August, 1901,
to come into force on 1st January, 1902, and the Extracts of the Act in
Part IV. (Legislation) of this Report show the additional responsibilities
placed upon Sanitary Authorities.
Bakehouses.—When the Factory and Workshop Act, 1901, was passed on
17th August, section 101 came into force forthwith, although the Act as a
whole did not come into force until the 1st January, 1902, This Section 101
provides that an underground bakehouse not in use as a bakehouse at the
passing of the Act shall not again be used as a bakehouse and no new