TOURIST
a dérive in Bow and Old Ford, 17 Sept 2006
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THE DOG OF ALCIBIADES
Victoria Park
Alcibiades had a dog which cost him seventy minas, and was a very large one, and very handsome. His tail, which was his principal ornament, he caused to be cut off, and his acquaintances exclaiming at him for it, and telling him that all Athens was sorry for the dog, and cried out upon him for this action, he laughed, and said, "Just what I wanted has happened then. I wished the Athenians to talk about this, that they might not say something worse of me."
Alcibiades, who by deception and double-crossing led to the defeat first of Sparta and then of Athens. "For he had, as it was observed, this peculiar talent and artifice for gaining men's affections, that he could at once comply with and really embrace and enter into their habits and ways of life, and change faster than the chameleon. One colour, indeed, they say the chameleon cannot assume: it cannot itself appear white; but Alcibiades, whether with good men or with bad, could adapt himself to his company, and equally wear the appearance of virtue or vice."
Plutarch, Lives (trans. John Dryden)
OLD FORD CHURCH
Phosphates are added to meats to allow them to retain water and to prevent decay; to cheese and dairy products as an emulsifier, and to disperse solids in milk to 'thicken' milkshakes and instant desserts; to soft drinks to give them a "pleasant tang", to peeled potatoes and canned fish to prevent discoloration and crystal formation.
Elmsley chapt. 13
FIRE FROM THE SKY
Incendiary bombs, divine lightning and petrol have rained down on Coutances, Hamburg, Dresden, Tokyo, Yosu, Mokpo, Chinju, Sachon, Yongdok, Kumchon, Trang Bang; on Tora Bora, Safwan Hill, bridges over the Saddam canal and Tigris River, Fallujah, Saqlawiya, and (in 1941) on St Mary's Church in Bow.
DARK PLACES OF LONDON #901
GREEN WAY
concentrated phosphoric acids (may contain as much as 70% to 75% P2O5 content) are used in agriculture. "World-wide demand for fertilizers has caused record phosphate production."
DESERT OF THE REAL
"Under Suprematism I understand the supremacy of pure feeling in creative art. To the Suprematist the visual phenomena of the objective world are, in themselves, meaningless; the significant thing is feeling, as such, quite apart from the environment in which it is called forth.
The so called "materialization" of a feeling in the conscious mind really means a materialization of the reflection of that feeling through the medium of some realistic conception.
...Objectivity, in itself, is meaningless to [the Suprematist]; the concepts of the conscious mind are worthless. Feeling is the determining factor ... and thus art arrives at non objective representation at Suprematism. It reaches a 'desert' in which nothing can be perceived but feeling."
Kasimir Malevich, 'The Non-Objective World' (1926)
THE BRYANT AND MAY FACTORY
1855
Bryant and May, Quakers, set up a factory in Fairfield Row, Bow, east London.
The PR poster at the current Fairfield Row site suggests that Bryant and May were model employers, whose emblem of Noah's Ark showed their commitment to safety (and safety matches in particular).
But by the early 20th century they will be making 60 billion matches a year: for every one safety match they make, they will produce 6 strike-anywhere matches.
1871
Bryant & May workers strike on behalf of their employers against a tax of 1/2 penny per dozen boxes of matches.
1888
Economic depression has lowered the price of matches to one penny per dozen boxes (each of which contains 100 matches).
compare the fate of the Danish 'little match seller' (Hans Christian Andersen)?
Bryant & May employ 3,000 people, most of whom work at home (1,300 in the Bow factory). Homeworkers are not covered by the Factory Act and susceptible to 'sweating'.
1882
A statue of Gladstone is erected outside St Mary's Church in Bow, donated by Theodore H. Bryant from conscriptions from the match workers in his factory. The plinth and hand of Gladstone continue to be daubed red to symbolise its origin in the blood of the matchgirls.
1888
Annie Besant interviewed some of the people who worked at Bryant & May. She discovered that the women worked fourteen hours a day for a wage of less than five shillings a week....Offences included talking, dropping matches or going to the toilet without permission.
On 23rd June 1888, Annie Besant wrote an article in her newspaper, The Link. The article, entitled "White Slavery in London", complained about the way the women at Bryant & May were being treated. The company reacted by attempting to force their workers to sign a statement that they were happy with their working conditions. When a group of women refused to sign, the organisers of the group was sacked. The response was immediate; 1400 of the women at Bryant & May went on strike.
the Salvation Army opened its own match-factory in Old Ford, East London. Only using harmless red phosphorus, the workers were soon producing six million boxes a year. William Booth organised conducted tours of MPs and journalists round this 'model' factory. He also took them to the homes of those "sweated workers" who were working eleven and twelve hours a day producing matches for companies like Bryant & May. the SA seek to replace lucifers with safety matches, marketed as 'Darkest England Safeties'.
The factory was near here, on Wick Lane.
source: 'Matchgirls Strike', Spartacus website
1901
Gilbert Bartholomew, managing director of Bryant & May, announced it had stopped used yellow phosphorus.
1906
Berne Convention prohibits the manufacture of white phosphorus matches. signed by all countries except the US.
1908
House of Commons passed an Act prohibiting the use of yellow phosphorus in matches after 31 December 1910, implementing the Berne Convention.
Mechanized production at the B&M factory
1979
Bryant & May factory closes.
The factory is now a posh gated development bordered by train tracks and the A12.
Its buildings have been named after New York locales: 'Manhattan', 'Lexington', etc. TV Presenter Danny Wallace recently declared his flat in Bow Quarter a sovereign micronation with the name 'Lovely'.
