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In several instances the medical officer of health comments upon the impossibility of undertaking
workshop inspection with his existing staff.
The medical officer of health of Kensington says the work "could not be done effectually without
material interference with the current work of inspection of dwelling-houses."
The medical officer of health of St. Pancras says, "No inspections of these places have yet been
made, nor is there any prospect of their being made by the present staff, whose time is fully occupied
with urgent and routine work."
The medical officer of health of Hackney says, "Enquiry has revealed the presence of something
like 2,000 workshops and dwellings of outworkers which, under this Act and Order, should be inspected
to ascertain the presence or otherwise of any insanitary condition. With the present staff it is
impossible that this can be attempted."
The medical officer of health of Bethnal-green says, "So far no action has been taken by your
officers under the above order (Outworkers' Order), for your present staff are so fully occupied that they
have not had time to inspect the workshops known to them, it was therefore considered useless to obtain
the addresses of fresh ones."
The medical officer of health of Whitechapel, referring to the constant changes in domestic
workshops, says, "I am at a loss to discover how, even with an increase in your staff, such new duties
can be efficiently performed."
Fourteen of the annual reports of medical officers of health contain no reference to the subject of
workshop inspection.
On December 22nd, 1892, I presented to the Public Health Committee a report as to the results
of inspections made by Dr. Hamer of workshops in Mile-end Old-town, Whitechapel, St. George-in-theEast,
Bethnal-green, and the Strand. The workshops inspected were those comprised in a list furnished *
by the honorary secretary of the Sanitary Committee of the Jewish Board of Guardians, which included
workshops believed to be faulty in one or another particular. The results obtained in the several
districts were as follows—
No of workshops
inspected.
No. overclouded.
No. of overcrowded
workshops
per cent,
of total workshops
inspected.
Mile-end Old-town 44 27 61
Whitechapel 47 22 46
St. George-in-the-East 14 4 28
Bethnal-green 5 2 40
Strand 4 — —
The attention of the sanitary authorities concerned was directed to the results of the inspection,
and on January 28th a circular was addressed to sanitary authorities asking what arrangements had been
made in the several districts for carrying out the provisions of the Public Health (London) Act. 1891,
with reference to workshops.
The replies received to this communication were summarized in a report of the Public Health
Committee to the Council on June 6th—"In most cases it appears that no special arrangements have
been made for carrying out an inspection of workshops apart from the ordinary house to house inspection
of the district. In three instances, however, an increase of staff is under consideration, in two cases
special workshop inspectors have been appointed, and seven authorities appear to have already carried
out a systematic inspection of workshops."
In the meantime I had presented to the Committee on April 27th a report by Dr. Hamer on
workshops in the St. James, Westminster, and Strand districts, in which it was stated that as regards
overcrowding these workshops compared favourably with those in the East-end districts; and on May
4th I presented a further report on the East-end workshops previously reported upon, and on June 1st
another report on the result of further inspections in Whitechapel and Mile-end Old-town. The last
report clearly showed that the action of the Mile-end Old-town vestry was being attended with beneficial
results.
Bakehouses.
The law relating to bakehouses remains practically unchanged, except that whereas antecedent
to the passing of the Public Health (London) Act, 1891, the duty of inspecting these premises devolved
upon the medical officer of health, no special reference is made to that officer in this Act, the duty of
enforcing the statutory provisions relating to bakehouses devolving on the sanitary authorities.
Information as to the work done in connection with bakehouses in the several districts is shown
in the reports of almost every one of the medical officers of health, and in some instances the number of
bakehouses inspected is given, and in others the number of inspections of bakehouses, while in some
reports it is not obvious whether the number given relates to one or the other.

These bakehouses were regularly inspected.
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