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bakehouse to be occupied, and a further fine not exceeding 5s. for each day occupation
continues after conviction.
(2) All inside walls and ceilings of rooms and all passages and staircases must be
limewashed every six months, or coated with three coats of paint or varnish every
seven years and washed with hot water and soap every six months; if not, the
bakehouse will be deemed not to be kept in conformity with the Act.
(3) Places on the same level with a bakehouse, and forming part of the same
building, must not be used as sleeping places unless effectually separated from the
bakehouse by a partition from floor to ceiling and provided with an external glazed
window 9 square feet, of which 4½ feet must be made to open: for a first offence a
penalty of 11., and for a second or subsequent offence a penalty of 51. may be
imposed both on the person occupying and on the person letting or knowingly
suffering the place to be occupied.
These regulations will in the case of all retail bakehouses* be enforced by the District
Council; a "retail bakehouse" meaning any bakehouse or place in which no mechanical
power is used and the bread, biscuits, or confectionery baked in which are sold not
wholesale, but by retail, in some shop or place occupied with the bakehouse. The medical
officer of health is, for the purpose, given all the powers of entry, inspection, taking legal
proceedings, and otherwise of a Factory Inspector.
Further, new duties of great importance are placed by sec. 101 of the Act on District
Councils in regard to underground bakehouses:—
(i) The Act provides generally that no underground bakehouse shall be used as such
unless it was so used on the 17th August last; this provision it will be the duty of the
Council to enforce in the case of retail bakehouses.*
(ii) Moreover, after 1st January, 1904—that is, after a period of two years from the
coming into force of the Act—it will not be lawful to use any underground bakehouse
(whenever established) unless the Council are satisfied that it is suitable for the purpose
in regard to construction, light, ventilation, and in all other respects, and have given it
a certificate of suitability. This provision will apply to all bakehouses, whether
wholesale or retail.
Every bakehouse will be deemed an underground bakehouse if any room used for
baking or for any process incidental thereto, is so situate that the surface of the floor is
more than 3 feet below the surface of the footway of the adjoining street, or of the
ground adjoining or nearest to the room.
An underground bakehouse used in contravention of these provisions will be deemed
to be a workshop not kept in conformity with the Act.
(iv.) Home Work. (Sees. 107-115.)
Very important powers of controlling the conditions under which certain classes of
work are done in the homes of the workers are for the first time given to District
Councils by the Act of 1901. These powers aim at the prevention of home work being
done (1) in dwellings which are injurious or dangerous to the health of the workers
themselves, e.g., through overcrowding, want of ventilation, or other insanitary
conditions ; (2) in premises where there is dangerous infectious disease.
* In London these provisions will be enforced by the Borough Councils in every bakehouse (whether
retail or not) which is a workshop.—Public Health (London) Act, 1891, sec. 26.