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105
ICE CREAM.
Ice cream was offered for sale at 233 shops during the summer season, of
this number 79 are in the hands of foreigners. In 1905 there were 249 shops,
of which 85 were kept by foreigners.
The 72 places in the City where ice creams are made were kept under
observation during the season with a view to ensuring that the regulations
with regard to its manufacture were properly carried out.
Enquiries were also made respecting the conditions under which ice creams
were manufactured at the 96 places in other districts supplying the article to
tradesmen in the City and to itinerant vendors. In all cases the replies were
satisfactory with one exception. In this case the Medical Officer of Health
for Holborn reported that a person selling ice cream at No, 175, Fleet Street,
manufactured it in a basement at No. 14, Great Turnstile, which was overflowing
with sewage. The sale of ice cream at both premises was at once prohibited,
and the proprietor was not allowed to resume the sale of ice cream until the
premises in Great Turnstile were in a sanitary condition.
As anticipated, it has been found that legislation with regard to the sale and
manufacture of this commodity has been of considerable advantage to the
public without placing undue restriction upon the traders.
The co.operation with the City police has much lessened the difficulty of
exercising control over itinerant vendors of ice cream, and the prosecution of
those who fail to exhibit on their barrow the place of manufacture of the ice
cream has had a good effect, eight of such vendors having been summoned by
the City Solicitor, and fines amounting in the aggregate to £3 16s. with
£2 8s. 6d. expenses imposed.
No case of illness attributed to eating ice cream has been reported in the
City during the year.
A further decrease in the number of itinerant ice cream vendors in the Citv
has to be noted. The number which had been 47 in 1903, decreasing to 37
in 1905, fell to 32 in 1906. Either the public taste for ice cream is depreciating
or the sale is less profitable, as it was found that many foreigners last
season had discontinued selling it.