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fried fish shops, 24; and fish-curers, 5. In addition, there were a number of shop
in which meat, ham, sausages, &c., were cooked and sold only over the counter.
None of these premises is, or is required to be, registered, and apart from
fish-curing and fish-frying premises, which are required to be in compliance with
certain requirements contained in by-laws of the London County Council, none of
them is subject to any very special provisions. Any individual, in short, may take
any sort of premises, and proceed to cook and prepare food for sale; no notice to
the local authority is required, and unless complaint is received, or infection or
suspicious illness occurs, or the premises are visited by an inspector, the fact that
they are so used may never be discovered.
That this is so appears to be at least unsatisfactory. On account of changed
conditions the amount of home cooking done is steadily diminishing, and more
and more the cook-shop, the restaurant, and the cooked-food shop are being
resorted to. In the poorer quarters of the Borough the extent to which the fried
fish shop, for example, is depended upon may be judged from the number of
children making purchases during the school dinner hour, and the number of adult
and child customers in the evenings. In the evenings, too, the busiest shops in
the main thoroughfares are those where cooked foods are retailed over the counter.
Legislation, which did not foresee these changes, contains no provision for
dealing properly with the premises, and the Legislature has made no attempt to
obtain control over them. Such places as the law, as it now stands, requires to be
registered or licensed are mainly those in which uncooked food is dealt with, e.g.,
slaughter-houses, cowsheds, milk shops, etc.
Having regard to the changes, the law should be extended in order to provide
for registration of the cooked-food premises also. Before establishing a restaurant
or eating rooms of any description, a cook-shop or a cooked-food shop, it shoulc
be necessary for application for registration to be made to the local authority, and
registration should not be granted until the premises had been inspected and
passed as suitable.
All this has been said many times before, and in the meantime, for departmental
and inspection purposes, a register is kept at the Public Health Office, and
particulars with regard to new premises are added as they are found.
As a matter of routine, a number of restaurants, etc., are visited each week
by the Food Inspector, and any matters discovered at these inspections are dealt
with at once. In 1930, the total number of inspections was 745, the number of
notices served being 18. If and when registration is made compulsory, the work
of supervision and control will be greatly simplified, though it is just possible that
at first, at least, it might entail an increase in work. The matter is, however, of
sufficient importance from the public health point of view to warrant it. Just as
from this point of view also, the suggestion that there should be registration of
lestaurants and cooked-food shops, even of all food shops, is warranted.
Food Stalls.—Since 1925 there has been a certain amount of change in relation
to these, because as a result of the coming into operation of by-laws with regard
to registration of street traders under the L.C.C. (General Powers) Act, 1927, they
have been affected in common with other stalls. The registration, however, is not
in the hands of the Public Health Committee, and the conditions affecting grant or
refusal are not exclusively hygienic. The Committee actually responsible is the
Highways Committee, who co-operate in the closest possible manner with the
Public Health Committee and make every effort to limit the numbers to whom
registration is granted. In spite of this, the number of registered stalls from
which food is sold in the market streets, particularly Great Titchfield Street,
Church Street, Bell Street, Blandford Street, etc., is regrettably large. Wherever
possible, the Committee refuse to allot space for stalls from which food is to be
sold, and in each case full enquiries are made and investigations of storage accommodation
carried out. Where improvements are required and are possible, these
are called for. If the conditions are unsatisfactory and irremediable, this is made
a ground for refusal of registration. All food stalls are inspected daily by officers