A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX 



coat-making industry is practically concen- 

 trated within an area of less than one square 

 mile, comprising the whole of Whitechapel, a 

 small piece of Mile End, and a part of St. 

 George's-in-the-East.' 10 Here is congregated 

 a compact Jewish community of from 30,000 

 to 40,000 persons of all nationalities. Yiddish 

 is the language of the streets, and Hebrew 

 announcements are everywhere to be seen. 

 The work of the English journeyman cannot 

 be equalled, but the conditions of his home 

 workshop are too often deplorable. Excellent 

 work is also produced in the Jewish workshop, 

 together with inferior work of every grade 

 down to the ' slops ' manufactured for the 

 export trade. The existence of the lowest 

 trade is dependent on the presence of a class 

 of workers such as Jews and women, with an 

 indefinitely low standard of life. Domestic 

 workshops are most numerous in the eastern 

 portion of Mile End Old Town ; Stepney and 

 Poplar are the centres of the slop, trouser, and 

 juvenile trade. 



In point of numbers, bootmaking is an 

 equally important East End industry, and is 

 rapidly growing in extent, especially in the 

 districts of Shoreditch and Bethnal Green, 

 where it gives occupation to a considerable 

 fraction of the population. 11 Under the old 

 system of bootmaking, the various workmen 

 engaged for bespoke work were the last-maker, 

 the clicker, who cut out the material for the 

 'uppers,' the closer, who sewed the upper or 

 top portion, and the maker, who fitted on the 

 sole or heel. Last-making is now almost a 

 separate business, and it is becoming increasingly 

 the custom to make uppers in a factory in 

 wholesale quantity. In the hand-made be- 

 spoke work, the labour of the closer was largely 

 done in the home, generally with the help of 

 the wife and daughters of the family. Since 

 the introduction of sewing-machines, many 

 closers have left the trade and no one is learn- 

 ing it. The machine-made bespoke work is 

 constructed with ready-made uppers from the 

 provinces, and completed by makers working, at 

 home or in associated workshops, on the fitted 

 last. In the ready-made wholesale trade the 

 organization is more complex, as cheapness is 

 an indispensable element. A complete machine- 

 sewn boot passes through the hands of twenty 

 different workers. The work of clickers and 

 rough-stuff cutters is usually done in the 

 factory in London, whilst lasters, closers, and 

 sole-sewers are out- workers. The manufac- 



10 The writer has to acknowledge his indebtedness 

 to the splendid survey of this subject in Booth's 

 Life and Labour In Land. 



11 Charles Booth, op. cit. (Ser. i), iv, 69. 



tories in London vary considerably in extent. 

 There are the large makers who turn out 

 1 0,000 and more pairs a week, and the cham- 

 ber-masters who chiefly employ members of 

 their own family and whose weekly output is 

 limited to a few gross. Then we reach the 

 lowest level, that of the owner of a couple of 

 rooms, who cuts his uppers, gets his wife and 

 daughter to close them, and lasts and finishes 

 the boots himself. Owing principally to the 

 conditions resulting from the restrictions im- 

 posed by the Trade Union wage-standard, the 

 work is being driven from London to North- 

 ampton. 



Shirt-making is largely carried on by women 

 in East London ; both shirts and underclothing 

 requiring good handiwork are made in several 

 middle-class London suburbs. The shirt ma- 

 chinists who take work home belong to various 

 grades of the social scale. Many are widows 

 who are partly assisted by their relatives or by 

 the parish. Some are young ladies who work 

 for pocket money for a mere trifle, and so lower 

 the standard of payment. Other causes of 

 low wages are incapacity (many of the workers 

 being feeble or inexperienced), sub-contract, 

 and the indifference to the quality of work on 

 the part of the consumer. Tie-making is 

 carried on partly in factories and partly in the 

 home. There is much sub-contracting, and 

 prices paid for labour greatly vary, although the 

 rate of payment is higher than that for shirts. 



In umbrella-making, the covers and the 

 frames are made in factories, and are then 

 put together in dozens and given out to the 

 home-workers. There are also small umbrella- 

 makers in the East End who supply shops in 

 the neighbourhood ; they buy sticks and frames, 

 and their families are all employed in the actual 

 umbrella manufacture. 



Corsets and stays are principally made in 

 provincial towns, but there are a few factories 

 in the East End. Several small stay-makers 

 have workshops of their own, employing a few 

 hands besides the members of their families, 

 and a few hundred women do work at home 

 for the factories. 



The fur-trade is, with very few exceptions, 

 in Jewish hands, both in the City and in the 

 East End. The City furriers have part of the 

 work done at their own warehouses ; but most 

 of them give out the sewing to be done by 

 home-workers. The fur-sewing is most dis- 

 agreeable and unhealthy, besides being the 

 worst paid of any industry carried on in East 

 London workshops. 



The box-making industry gives employment 

 largely to women. Fancy boxes are made 

 almost entirely on the premises of the manu- 

 facturer, but much of the work in plain boxes 



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