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have, therefore, reason for satisfaction. Whether this provision will extend is doubtful,
bearing in mind the fact that a business which may have made such arrangements may have
become so successful that it requires additional room for administrative purposes, and the
necessary property to enable extension to be made cannot always be obtained. In a few instances
the refectory provision has had to be sacrificed for business exigencies.
Other workers either bring their own food which is consumed at the office, or adjourn to
a restaurant. The latter group constitute the larger number. In former days restaurants
were mainly concerns of private individuals—the proprietor often living on the premises—
but to-day the tendency is for centralisation of businesses and we have now at work within
the City boundaries several large firms whose main concern is the supply of food. There exist
of course still a large number of separately controlled places. Large businesses, however,
represent a very great advance in method. They may lack to some extent the homeliness
and the fraternising characteristics for which many of the old taverns were renowned but,
as an alternative advantage, the supply of food to large numbers is their chief concern and
this is accomplished under reasonably satisfactory conditions. Much of the food is prepared
at the central headquarters and is daily brought into the City; for instance, portions of
bread in the form of rolls, portions of butter prepared as "pats," tea in packets, various
cooked foods in bulk, tarts and pastries, portions of cheese, and perishable articles, which are
replenished as the supply diminishes, leaving for preparation on the premises only those
dishes which require to be prepared immediately prior to consumption, such as poached eggs,
boiled eggs, toast, potatoes, and so on.
These bigger firms control the quality of the food at headquarters and recognise the
advantage of up-to-date methods in their local kitchens. Efficient organisation and satisfaction
of customers are necessary if the concerns in which considerable sums of money are
invested are to be dividend-producing.
It would not be difficult to prove that the food supply of the worker of to-day compares
favourably with that of fifteen or twenty years ago. The chief defect, in my opinion, is
partly due to the customer not fully appreciating of what a suitable meal should consist.
There is, as a rule, ample choice in the City, but I fear the customer does not regularly
display a wise discrimination. In these days when restaurants employ literary men of great
ability to contribute, not only to displayed advertisements, but to the attractiveness of
menus by the weekly chats printed on the back of their food lists, it would be an advantage
to use the space occasionally for scientific observations, worked up in journalistic style,
which would guide the customer who has not much knowledge of the subject, in a wiser choice
for his mid-day repast, whether that be the chief meal of the day or a "carry-on" affair
until he or she arrives home in the evening.
This represents the position as affecting a large number of workers but concurrently
with the increase of this type of accommodation there has been a decrease in what might be
termed higher-class restaurants—" higher-class " here means higher-priced. I am not sure
whether this is not an index of the changed set of circumstances, for one recognises that the
heavy meal of former days is being replaced—and I am now referring to the successful men
in the higher administrative ranks—by a lighter meal occupying not a quarter of the time
of the former mid-day feast. One need hardly refer of course to the diminished consumption
of alcoholic beverages which now occurs at mid-day, and which is an important factor in the
financial success of such restaurants. The business of the caterer cannot of course be regarded
as in any sense philanthropic, and if the demand ceases, so will the supply. This fact may
perhaps account for the reduction in the number of the more expensive and luxurious City
restaurants. The whole tendency of City life is more concentrated work for fewer hours, a
position which in my opinion is sound policy, both in respect of the maintenance of better
mental processes and of good health.
The increase in the newer type of cheap restaurant has certainly benefited a large numbc r
of people since the haphazard meal of the "penny bun and drink at the fountain" is now
never heard of, or only rarely.
HOUSING MATTERS.
City Residents.—The covering of site areas has rendered the City quite unsuitable as a general
place of residence. City residents now comprise persons whose occupations necessitate
their living within the area, e.g., caretakers, and service men—such as the police. There
are a few resident shopkeepers, a few clergymen, a number of elderly people who are so
attracted by the City in which they have passed their lives that they will not leave until
compelled to do so, and a balance made up of casuals, to whom, for one reason or another,
the City seems to present irresistible attraction