THE WORLD OF WORK
by Catherine Haill, V & A
London became known as the greatest city on earth during the 19th century, the home of steam-driven industry, engineering and mass production, as well as the centre of business, government and empire. Bridges built over the Thames in the late 18th century at Westminster, Blackfriars, Vauxhall, Waterloo and Southwark made London far more accessible than fifty years before when London Bridge was the only road crossing, and the horse-drawn ferry at Westminster's Horseferry Road was an important river crossing.
In 1844 Frederick Engels wrote of London's immensity, its: `endless lines of vehicles', `countless ships' and `hundreds of steamers'. The docks built in the East End in the first half of the century accommodated the new faster ships bringing more goods and immigrants to the city. The late 18th century building frenzy continued unabated, changing London's landscape, building over land separating the villages east of London, and covering the strawberry fields of Hackney forever. Labourers, factory workers, tradesmen, and all types of manpower were needed for the burgeoning industries. London's population rose by 20 percent each decade after 1800, and by the middle of the 19th century `the bricken wilderness' of London was also the filthiest city in the world, with typhoid and cholera epidemics, and a need for rat-catchers in the sewers.
The East End was home to many of London's most poorly-paid workers, but enough could still afford tickets to sustain local theatres and music halls. For those who couldn't, there were even cheaper makeshift theatres known as `Penny Gaffs'. As the population grew during the 19th century, more theatres and music halls opened in the East End, with frequently changing programmes needing a constant supply of plays, many written with local audiences in mind, featuring their trades and occupations. A vast number of East Enders worked as costermongers - street vendors of all manner of goods and foods, such as the oyster and sprat sellers in James Elphinstone's 1855 play The Ratcatcher's Daughter at the Pavilion Theatre. By the end of the century when traditional costermongers were in decline, they were nostalgically personified by East End music hall stars including Gus Elen, Albert Chevalier and Phil Bransby, advertised at Poplar's Queen's Palace of Varieties, 14 January 1907, as `London's new Coster Comedian'.
In the early 19th century a high proportion of East Enders were employed in workshop trades, such as those popular with Jewish immigrants including cabinet making, boot and shoe making, cap making, dressmaking and tailoring, a trade which featured in the pantomime The Whitechapel Needle! at the Royal Pavilion Theatre in 1844. Thousands of outworkers worked long hours at home in repetitive, poorly paid jobs such as artificial flower making. The Artificial Flower Makers, an afterpiece at the Britannia Theatre in December 1871, by the theatre's resident playwright, featured this trade. Artificial flower making was common `sweated labour' for girls, despite their health being severely affected by the poisonous arsenite of copper in the green colouring used.
As the century progressed, thousands found employment in factories which profited from being built close to the docks. They produced all manner of goods from soap, jam and confectionery, to matches, cigarettes, cigars, paint and beer. The working day was extremely long, and several 19th century plays lamented the plight of factory workers. Sailors and workers in the shipyards and docks enjoyed the nautical plays and hornpipes at the Pavilion Theatre Whitechapel, where after 1842 they could also gaze at marine painting in the auditorium and nautical views painted on the stage cloths and scenery.
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Subject Terms:Keyword Terms: Apprentice,Servant,Tailor,Waterman,Cobbler,Benefit performances,
East London Theatre Archive
