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132
Underground Bakehouses.
The Factory and Workshop Act of 1901, requires that
after January 1st, 1904, no Underground Bakehouse shall
be used unless certified by the Borough Council that it is
suitable as regards—
1. Construction
2. Light
3. Ventilation
4. In all other respects.
The question of bakehouses and inhabited kitchens has
been somewhat prejudiced by the misleading use of the
word "underground;" the common meaning of the term is
obviously "subterranean" like sewers, mines, tube railways,
or catacombs, whereas the Statute by the term "Underground"
simply means basements, similar to the
majority of London kitchens, the floor of which is more
than three feet below the level of the adjacent footway.
Although it is more than 12 months before the special
enactments come into force, yet it is not only a matter of
convenience, but of justice to the various bakers of
the Borough to decide as soon as practicable what, if
any, bakehouses are unfit to certify, and if any are unfit
whether structural alterations can be made so as to bring
them up to the standard of those which may be permitted
to continue.
This important matter was discussed at a recent
meeting of the Health Committee, and the Committee
adopted the writer's suggestion that the underground
bakehouses should be specially inspected during the first
quarter of 1903, and that each case should be considered on
its merits.
The bakehouses in Marylebone are decreasing; 12 bakehouses
were not in use on August 17th, 1901. and, by Statute,
an underground bakehouse not in use at that date can no
o nger be used as a bakehouse.