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4
The consideration of this report was adjourned to the 18th
January last. A requisition signed by ten Ratepayers was meantime
addressed to the Vestry Clerk pursuant to the requirements of the
Baths and Wash-houses Act of 1846, requiring him to convene a
special meeting of the Vestry for the purpose of determining whether
the Baths and Wash-houses Acts should be adopted in the Parish;
and the Vestry having been specially convened in accordance with
such requisition for the 18th January, took the report of the General
Purposes Committee into consideration at such meeting, and thereupon
passed the resolution set out in the Appendix (A), pursuant to which
this Committee was appointed.
Your Committee has met eight times, and has visited the Public
Baths and Wash-houses in the Parishes of Saint Marylebone, Paddington,
Whitechapel and Poplar. These institutions, although very dissimilar
as regards their original cost and present size and accommodation, as
will be seen from the annexed particulars, and as regards the circumstances
and surroundings of the parishes in which they are situate,
may be taken as fairly representative, and your Committee has little
doubt from what it saw and from the statements made by the
Commissioners or Managers that they not only meet the wants of
their respective neighbourhoods, but are highly appreciated by the
inhabitants.
Your Committee has also caused to be prepared from the Local
Government Board Returns an abstract of the original cost, accommodation,
receipts and expenditure of the whole of the baths and
wash-houses in the Metropolis (Appendix C). The cost of sites,
buildings and fittings necessarily varies according to the size and
requirements of the Parish, and in Islington will depend upon the
views of the Commissioners (who will have to be appointed should the
Vestry determine to adopt the Acts) as to meeting those requirements,
but roughly speaking your Committee is of opinion that three establishments,
each containing two large swimming baths, 25 private baths,
and accommodation for 25 washers, might be provided at a cost,
including sites and fittings, of £50,000.
That such establishments would for some years involve a charge
upon the rates your Committee has little doubt, but from the abstract
(C) appended it will be seen that in two Parishes where the baths have
been longest established (Bloomsbury and St. Marylebone) this charge