That each Slaughter-house be paved with asphalte, laid with proper slopes and channels towards a trapped gully, and, where practicable, such gully shall be outside the Slaughter-house and Pound.
Objections.[2]
The Butchers demur, firstly, to the use of asphalte, and, secondly, to the gully being placed outside the Slaughter-house.
Reply.
The reason for insisting upon asphalte is to avoid joints, which are inevitable in every other kind of pavement.
The joints in stone pavements, however well laid, cannot be made durable, owing to the frequent concussions produced by the animals falling heavily and suddenly when pole-axed, and the joints being once cracked or broken readily admit through their interstices every kind of liquid filth, which accumulates in the subsoil and decomposes there.
The flooring of the present Slaughter-houses in Aldgate is composed of small, and badly laid, flag-stones, &c., which are loose, broken, and uneven in many places, and which cannot be properly cleansed on account of the inequalities of the surfaces.
The retention of this Bye-law will, of course, prevent the replacement of the old flag-stones upon the reconstruction of the Slaughter-houses, and involve the owners in some expense.
A smooth jointless pavement for Slaughter-houses was unanimously considered the best at a meeting of the Royal Institute of British Architects, in a discussion which followed the reading of a paper by Mr. Darbyshire, on Public Abattoirs, 1st February, 1875.
The Metropolitan Board of Works is quoted by the “Butchers’ Trade Society” as sanctioning the use of flag-stones, but this is scarcely ingenuous, the truth being that the Board recommend asphalte in the first instance, but allow flag-stones set in cement as an alternative.