The Bryant & May match factory in Bow

An essential stop-off on any walk around Bow is the former Bryant & May match factory, still a brooding presence on Fairfield Road. Once the scene of the historic match-girls strike of 1888, the buildings have now been converted into a swish apartment complex, only accessible through an electric gate…

Former match factory in Bow

In 1855 Bryant & May acquired a patent to manufacture safety matches from red phosphorus and potassium. In 1861 they opened the Fairfield Works in Bow, ideally situated as timber for the matches could be transported up the Lea Navigation Canal. By 1875 the firm employed over 5,600 workers.

                                                                                                       
Life for the girls who worked in the factory was hard. While Bryant & May’s shareholders enjoyed rich dividends, the ‘match girls’, as they were known, earned a paltry few shillings for a 12-hour day - most of it spent standing up. What’s more, their wages were subject to fines (for ‘crimes’ such as talking or having dirty feet) and other random deductions.

The statue of Gladstone that now stands near Bow Church was paid for by the workers. Each girl had a shilling docked from her wages to pay for its installation and employers then deprived them of another half a day’s wages by closing the factory for the unveiling ceremony.

Working conditions were poor. There were no refreshment breaks – the girls were forced to eat at benches contaminated by phosphorus. This meant they were constantly at risk of contracting "phossy
 jaw", a necrotic disease caused by the toxic white phosphorous on the matches. It burned the skin, caused breathlessness, jaundice and sickness - the gutters filled with luminous vomit when the girls finished their shift – and caused extensive tooth loss, leading to much pain and disfigurement.

A Fabian campaigner called Annie Besant decided to interview the factory girls about their experiences. She then used this material to write an article entitled “White Slavery in London”. In it she likens the Bow factory to a “prison-house” and describes the match girls as “white wage slaves” – “undersized”, “helpless” and “oppressed”. As well as exposing the horrors of the match industry in her writing, Besant also lobbied her well-connected friends to boycott Bryant & May matches.

In response to Besant's article, Bryant & May sacked any women they suspected of providing her with information, and the now famous Matchgirls’ Strike – a spontaneously organised walk-out by around 1500 female workers - began. Managers tried to force the match-women to condemn Besant. They refused, smuggling out a warning note: "Dear Lady, they have been trying to get the poor girls to say it is all lies that has been printed and to sign a paper…we will not sign."

Strike Committee (Besant back row, centre)

 The strikers elected six women to put forward their demands - a reinstatement of their sacked colleagues, an end to fines, and a separate dining-room away from the phosphorus fumes.

 After three weeks, following a barrage of adverse publicity, the owners were forced to give in. All the workers’ demands were met and the largest female union in the country had been born.

Although it was many years before Bryant & May stopped using lethal phosphorous in their product, the match girls’ demonstration of solidarity paid off for those coming after them. This first-ever attempt to organise unskilled female workers into a trade union was all the more remarkable as it came at a time when only 5% of the British labour force (mainly skilled workers) were union members. Inevitably, a wave of other strikes followed, including the gas-workers of West Ham in 1888 (striking for a reduction of their working day to 8 hours) and, in 1889, the great Dock Strike.

Bow Quarter today

The Bryant & May factory finally closed in 1979. In the mid-1980s the complex of buildings it occupied was converted into 600 apartments and today Bow Quarter is a highly sought-after address.

References:

London’s East End: Life and Traditions Jane Cox (1994)

The East End Nobody Knows Andrew Davies (1990)

East End Chronicles Ed Glinert book (2005)

‘Bow’s brave matchwomen honoured in anniversary celebrations’ at: www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-22716263