Work

Womens work

years ago people used to help one another whereas now they go out to work all day, and dont forget years ago mums never went out to work all day because they had to be there because the children all came in from school at lunch time and we had from twelve till two for lunch every day.

So the mums had to be at home for the dinners, for the children coming in, so if any women went out to work, they went out very early in the morning office cleaning. Thats what they did, so that they came home, then got the kids up ready for school and they were there all day, so nobody really went out to work, not the mothers didnt, not years ago, not like they do today.

I cleaned all the private flats at the back of that place for all the directors of Vickers and Rolls Royce. And I never once in all that time drew any dole money, and I worked till I was 70

I used to work in the flower market , for a number of years, but I wasnt that struck on it because I was on permanent nights, which is fine, but I never got used to it - your body, my body, I never got used it. Turned up at work and I should be in bed. Doesnt matter how much sleep you get during the day. Have you ever tried night work? It drives you nuts. The dawns coming up and the sun should be going down.

[My mother] had a stall in the Cut here for 13 years. [She sold] silk stockings. Fully fashioned stockings. Gun metal stockings, the grey, they used to be very fashionable, and mens socks and childrens socks. Just where the flats Dorian Ramsey Court, well they were just opposite that in the road there.

My grandmother lost my grandfather when A. was four and she got ten shillings widow. So she used to do scrubbing and washing and delivering babies or laying out somebody whod died. Thats what she used to do.

Mens work

if you didnt work, you didnt get anything. Thats why people were always at work. But of course, as my husband used to say, there was plenty of industry then for the boys when they left school, they was apprenticeshiped, plumbing, and carpentry, and my husband was in apprenticeship for engineering. He only used to earn threepence an hour when he first left school. See, thats what people did, but these days they dont want to work, do they? I dont think they do anyway.

Bs dad worked in Covent Garden market. And your uncles, they were in the flower part, he was in the veg.

As soon as they left school and were able to work they went to work in the docks and they lived in the docks. Their fathers, their grandfathers, the whole family worked among ships. I mean Ive worked among ships practically all my life, even before I went in the Army I was at Plymouth working amongst ships. And when you worked among ships you know ships. You miss them.

Men used to go from one warehouse to another and they used to come up on what they called the stones. And the labour master at the particular warehouse would go out there in the morning and theyd have to be there for eight oclock and hed call on the men who were wanted. Now if you had a ship alongside youd need about 28 men. 14 on shore, 14 maybe in the ship

They used to be sent away sometimes and never get a jobMy dad used to have wait outside the dock in the 30s. He was a Merchant Seaman before the First World War and then was called up for the Army and after that he used to go down the docks and get called off, or if you didnt get called off you didnt get any work.

Redcross Street was full of dockers. A lot of dockers around here. Before the war I was there, I had a regular job. After a while the work was finishing , so I went out on what they call the labour pool. The men used to, at a quarter to eight, line up outside any wharf where they looked for a job, and the man they called the labour master used to come out and pick who he wanted. The rest walked away. they call it out on the stones The pavement, or the roadway where you lined till you get a job, thats what we called the stones. Well, I thought it was good. I like the free life, and it was free, because I looked for job - I mean, with me having three children, then you did put yourself out. If the work was there, you done it.

where Surrey Quays is now the shopping centre, Ive seen men walking down with timbers on their shoulders and what they used to use the bounce. The plank underneath them used to [bounce] and it used to bounce the same as the timber on their shoulder, and as long as they bounced together it was all right, but when the bounce went out of rhythm youd probably find him in the river. This is the sort of thing you got used to seeing, it was a man walking on the bounce you used to say.

you had cranes swinging over your head and they were big cranes where the crane driver used to be sat up in the crane itself and he was like a tanker driver, he knew his business. And they were so skilled at the jobs I would say they could drop it [the cargo] on a sixpence.

I done most things. Worked on ships, on the barges, in the warehouse, I was a crane driver - but I couldnt get used to those big ones you see down there, couldnt get used to those. It was a lonely job. I liked company, I like laughing and joking.

as years went on, a National Dock Labour Board was formed and the dockers became under a union and wed then have to apply to the National Dock Labour Board and say want so many men this morning and they would then allocate the labour to you. So youd have to wait for the labour to arrive. Instead of waiting on the stones outside it would be sent to you.

. So it became a much easier thing to deal with, because there was always permanent labour as well. You had what we called the permanents. Those were the ones that remained with you always So it was more satisfactory as far as the chaps who used to work in the docks were concerned because if they became a permanent they knew they had a job. And so it evolved over the years until of course in 1974 the docks began to disappear.

There was an abattoir in the Lower Marsh. Past the Action Centre, you know where the taxis are coming down, well theyd bring the sheep down there into the butchers abattoir and theyd kill them there for the shop. [Butchers] used to do their own killing I would think.

My uncle was a printer. My father was a Covent Garden Market porter in the morning, which was very dodgey because they had to stand on the stones, they were just the porters and theyd have to be picked like they were at the docks. Then to add to the money, my dad would work in the theatre, a lot of them, and he was a stage hand, so he knew all the stars.

We had a two-tiered working organisation round here. You had the manual workers of a lower grade, who was dockers, builders, and any type of manual work; then you had the elite who was the printers who worked in the print. just for arguments sake, if you earned 8 a week, they was earning 16, 17, 18 pound a week. It was a lot of money, and an ordinary manual worker probably have to work a sixty hour week, six days a week; they was working about four day week, because they was printers ...

In actual fact you can see the distinction if you walk round the area because if you lived [in] the Peabodyor the Church Commissioners [you] would be the manual workers side, but if you used to go across the other side to Upper Street and Mitre Road, a lot of thems the printers typewell, Upper Street had gardens. I mean, it was unknown for most people to have a garden round here. Most people didnt even have a separate bedroom, let alone a garden.

Unemployment

my dad only worked about six months of the year and then the rest of the year he was on the dole, signing on every day. You got a few shillings I think.

You were out of a work for a little while. Did affect him health-wise, but he got over that. You imagine that they all were like that. It affects you health-wise because you suddenly dont know youve got no stable situation and youre jumping around from place to place and youre looking and youre thinking youre going on as casual labour they might call you on a Monday morning and say youve got a weeks work. Or you might ring up on a Monday morning, oh theres no work for you this week.