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201
PUBLIC BATHS AND WASH-HOUSES.
The Baths and Wash-houses, at the junction of Lancaster
and Silchester Roads, Notting Hill, opened in April,
1888. have been well supported. But for the majority of
parishioners the site is not sufficiently central for bathing;
and obviously it is too remote for washing purposes. The
same objection would apply to any single site in the parish.
Much good might be effected by the provision of buildings,
on a modest scale, in several localities, to which the poor
could resort for the purpose of washing clothing. The
statistics contained in the successive Annual Reports of the
Commissioners for Baths and Wash-houses show a constantly
increasing use made of the wash-houses, and are of a nature
to encourage the hope that it may be found not merely desirable,
but prudent also, to provide, at no distant time, for the
wants of the poor in the central and southern parts of the
parish. The total number of washers, 13,950 only in the
year ended March 25th, 1889, rose to 31,113 in the year
ended 25th March, 1890, to 39,829 in the year ended
March 25th, 1891, and to 42,528 in the year ended March
25th, 1892. The number of hours employed in washing, in
the four years consecutively, was 38,709, 84,352, 106,5(50 and
104,223. Obviously the question of public wash-houses
might with advantage be separated from that of public baths.
The bathers who in 1889-90 were 79,029, and in 1890-91
89,491, were 93,557—-viz., males, 81,973, and females 11,584,
in 1891-92: in the swimming baths, 52,325; and in private
baths, 41,232.
The Commissioners, in their Annual Report, state that
"the amount received, during the year, of the Vestry
toward the repayment of loans and interest, and to meet
the expenses of maintaining the institution, was £4,920 (it
was £5,692 in the previous year) being but very little more
than equal to a rate of one halfpenny in the £ to the ratepayers.'