Hints on the planning of poor law buildings and mortuaries / [Albert C. Freeman].

  • Freeman, Albert C.
Date:
[1906]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Hints on the planning of poor law buildings and mortuaries / [Albert C. Freeman]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    additional work. This mess-room should be fitted up with plain deal seating fixed around the walls and a table in the centre. Bathing accommodation is necessary, in the pro- portion of one bath to every seven or eight inmates, together with a range of lavatory basins. No two baths should be fixed in the same room—■“ decency forbids.” The supply of hot and cold water should be laid on to each fitting, the valves in all cases being fitted with loose keys, so as to be under the entire control of the attendant; and the baths should be provided with quick wastes, to allow of the same being quickly emptied. In many cases provision is made for vagrants in separate cells to relieve the wants of nature by pi-oviding automatic seat-flushing w.-c. apparatus; but unless these fittings receive constant attention they become a nuisance. It is advisable to provide at the rear end of the corridor, or in some other convenient position, a slop sink, for emptying night utensils, for the supply of water for scrubbing, and other purposes. Accommodation is necessary for the labour master, whose office should be near the entrance, and overlooking the corridor where the building is planned with two floors; and his living apartments should be placed on the first floor. As is generally the case, the wife of the labour master takes the position of female attendant, and the cooking for the female vagrants is carried out in the labour master’s kitchen. Provision is also necessary for drying and dis- infecting the clothes of the inmates upon their admission; also linen stores, etc. The building should be provided with a heating apparatus fixed in the basement. I should suggest hot water, as the pipes, when run through each cell, may pass in the front of the labour cell doorway, the step being raised to avoid any obstruction to the opening of the doors. Every precaution should be taken to guard against an outbreak of fire. A hydrant, together with water buckets, should be provided in each corridor, and the staircases in all cases should be constructed of stone or fireproof material.
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