Identity area
Type of entity
Authorized form of name
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
History
The term 'public control', as used in the Council's organisation, embraced various services of a regulative character, mostly exercised by some form of licensing control. Largely unobtrusive in their operation, and producing no spectacular effects, they were all carried out in the public interest and, in some respects, for the protection of the public or certain sections of it.
Their administration was conditioned by trends in the legislative provisions under which they were operated, by shifts and changes in social usages, and by the development of the Council's policies towards the matters to which they related.
The Council was the authority responsible for the grant of licences to cover the safe keeping of petroleum spirit, petroleum mixture, and carbide of calcium, which is used to produce acetylene. Leaking petrol tanks were located and the leakage stopped before accident could occur. Disused tanks were rendered safe from danger of fire and explosion, and the Council kept records of all disused tanks remaining in the ground.
In addition the Council exercised powers over the storage of inflammable liquids and dangerous businesses such as varnish making, oil boiling and wax polish manufacture. The Council was an authority under the Explosives Acts, but the statutory requirements relating to safety distances made large stores of explosives impractical in London. The Council was principally concerned with the registration and inspection of shops where fireworks were stored.
Duties of control and registration of highly flammable celluloid stores were given to the Council in 1915. Between the two world wars very large stocks of cinematograph film were stored in London, mostly in the Wardour Street area, where film renters' premises were situated. The Council's celluloid inspector had to ensure that the safety precautions laid down in the Act were properly observed. The quantity of celluloid and nitro-cellulose cinematograph film in the county became greatly reduced, and by 1963 there were only about 60 stores registered. The films stored were mostly of historic interest or were used to print safer stock from the original nitro-cellulose films.