London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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Kensington 1875

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Kensington]

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38
kept clean and in good order. The poundage should
have no inhabited rooms over it, and should not be
used for any other purpose than for the temporary
detention of cattle previous to slaughtering.
7. As to position of dung pits:—
That no dung pit or ash pit should be permitted to be
near the door or window of a slaughter-house.
8. As to appliances for slaughtering:—
That every slaughter-house should be provided with all
the necessary and most approved apparatus and
tackle for the slaughtering of cattle.
9. As to hanging of meat:—
That neither the lairs nor any stable should be used as a
hanging place for meat.
10. As to inspectors:—
That any interference with an officer in the discharge of
his duty, or any molestation, as by the use of abusive
language, should be made an offence within the meaning
of the bye-laws.
I may here mention that the Commissioners of Sewers, as the
" local authority" for the City of London, have framed a code of
bye-laws much in advance, in a sanitary point of view, of those
prepared by the Metropolitan Board of Works for the rest of the
metropolis. It remains to be seen, however, whether the said
bye-laws will be confirmed by the Local Government Board.
I have already mentioned that the "Board" opposed the
renewal of one license. The ground of opposition was that the
paved flooring of the slaughter-house had to be traversed by a
horse in going to and from a stable at the rear. The magistrates
viewed the premises and overruled the objection; but in
other districts, I am informed, a similar objection had been
allowed by the justices. It is the fact also that in other districts,
licenses were successfully opposed, because sausages were made
in the slaughter-houses. Such use of the premises is undesirable,
no doubt, and it is contrary to the bye laws. It is strange,
however, that the "Board," which refuses to allow a horse to
cross a slaughter-house, or a sausage to be manufactured in it,
should permit cattle to pass through houses and butchers' shops
through which all the products of slaughtering have to be conveyed;
and that they should make no provision for separate
lairage—allowing animals to be pounded in the slaughter-houses,
where they are to be killed, and where the carcasses will subsequently
be hung to cool and set! The slaughter-house licenses
in Chelsea, Fulharm, and Hammersmith, had been granted with
scarcely an objection before the Kensington cases were called on,
many of the premises in those parishes being without lairage, and
approached through a house or shop; and the justices were told
while adjudicating on Kensington applications that they were
reversing their previous decisions. The Court, however, in the