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114
In addition to securing the provision of suitable and adequate
sanitary conveniences the department's duties include the enforcement
of cleanliness in the workrooms, benches, staircases and
passages, etc., removal of refuse and freedom from effluvia; prevention
of overcrowding; the maintenance of a reasonable temperature
and effective ventilation and for rendering harmless, as
far as practicable, all dust, fumes and other impurities; and securing
adequate drainage of floors where processes are carried on which
render floors liable to wetness.
In 1920 the number of factories in the borough totalled 162,
whilst workshops numbered 1,014, and outworkers on the Register
totalled 2,992, but under the Factories Act, 1937, the former
distinction between factories and workshops was abolished in favour
of factories with or without mechanical power, and at the end of
1950, despite war damage, the factories totalled 1,609 and outworkers
1,664.
Between the years 1920 and 1939 the unrestricted industrialisation
which took place in the borough resulted in a considerable
increase in the number of factories and workshops. The Council
at that time possessed no powers to deal with this industrialisation
which, as mentioned in the review of housing, took place at the
expense of the housing accommodation in the borough, although
considerable powers existed with regard to the establishment of
trades scheduled as "offensive" under the Public Health (London)
Acts, 1891 and 1936.
Unless the business which it was proposed to carry on was one
of the few scheduled "offensive" trades, all of which deal with
animal products, no indication of the character of the trade needed
to be given before establishing a factory or workshop; all that was
required was that a plan of drainage should be approved by the
Borough Council and provisions dealing with the safe erection of
the building carried out. Houses could be and were adapted for
business purposes and factories and workshops were speculatively
erected in back gardens, the premises then being disposed of to
manufacturers. Immediately the new owner engaged his workpeople
and disclosed the nature of his trade he received notices
from the Public Health Department to comply with the Factory
and Workshop Act and Regulations. Workshops and factories were
established in this way, and unsuitable proposals put forward for
permitting workpeople to use public lavatories or the conveniences
of adjoining houses, and a great deal of unnecessary difficulty and
expense was often caused by the necessity for enforcing sanitary
requirements after the establishment of a business.
Even when the arrangements were ostensibly satisfactory, and
it was, one might say, at any rate possible to carry on without