Female Workers in 19th Century London

[legoline]

I am currently planning/writing an urban fantasy novel set in 19th century Victorian London, and I have been wrecking my head over what may or may not be a small detail for weeks

Comments

[sushidog]

When you say you want something "better" than match-making (erm, in the sense of lucifers rather than romance!), what do you mean by "better"? Better for your character, or do you have criteria you haven't mentioned?

[legoline]

Ah, I should have clarified. There is always something :-)

Reading the article it seemed like those manufactures were rather small, emplying 6-8 people, and I was wondering if there were more "factory"-like places, bigger and more anonymous, so to say.

[sushidog]

The Bryant and May factory in Bow was one of the biggest factories in the country (and the site of a famous labour strike, so you should be able to find information about it; there's a decent start here.

[awesomelies]

Hah! Beaten to it...

[mofic]

This map http://www.fidnet.com/~dap1955/dickens/dickens_london_map.html of London at the time Dickens lived shows the location of Warren's Blacking Factory and says that Dickens worked there when he was 12 years old. I don't know if they had female workers, but it's worth looking into.

Here's some stuff about match manufacturers: http://www.victorianlondon.org/professions/matches.htm

In general I think you're better off looking for "factories London 19th Century" which gives you a lot of hits and follow likns to find out more, including whether they hired girls/women than to start with women/girls and try to find factories.

[legoline]

Whoa, thank you!

In general I think you're better off looking for "factories London 19th Century" which gives you a lot of hits and follow likns to find out more,

I will certainly do that! It's a bit tricky googling English terms when you're not a native speaker (I didn't think tweaking the syntax would make such a difference!), which I guess is partly why my Google-fu seems to be failing me so often.

Thank you!

[kinetikatrue]

Another article on the same site gives you shoes/boots, cigars/cigarettes and sweets as others types of goods manufactured in factories in London by women.

[legoline]

Thanks so much! Whoa. I'm speechless. That was really fast. You guys just saved my novel. Thank you!

[awesomelies]

I'll also suggest asking the proprietor of Victorian London, Lee Jackson. He knows the period inside-out and his site explicitly invites questions. He's on Twitter here.

[legoline]

Oh, I will certainly do that. Thank you so much! You've been of such great help.

I feel a bit stupid now because it's like the answer was staring me right in the face but I just couldn't find anything when I tried to find material. D'oh.

[awesomelies]

Ah, not a problem. None of that stuff's exactly famous, it just happens to coincide with where I work and what I do.

In case time & place don't work out for the match factory thing, here's another possibility - working in a pin factory. That's in Bristol but there might have been similar places in London, or you could invent one if you're not fussed about 100% historical accuracy.

[legoline]

Oh, thank you! The pin factory looks like a good alternative, I shall look into it. I'm not opposed to inventing a place, but I do want everything to be as plausible as possible, you know?

[legoline]

Thank you for your help! I will look that up. :-)