3-074-943 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Gasworkers' Strike: Christmas Eve entertainment for gas stokers, 1890. 'The South Metropolitan Gas Company, by the energetic and determined management of its operations under the conduct of Mr. George Livesey, the Chairman, has successfully overcome the difficulty of providing a full supply of gas for its customers in the southern and south-eastern districts of London. Two or three weeks' practice has made the new hands brought from the country as expert in the few and simple duties of attending to the retorts, which have been described in former notices of this subject, as the old hands were before they "struck" in obedience to the dictators of the Gas Workers' Union...the gasworkers...were treated to a cheerful social entertainment on Christmas Eve [ie a 'minstrel show' - performed by mostly white actors wearing blackface makeup for the purpose of portraying racial stereotypes of Black people]. It is now felt that the crisis has passed, as the men of the Beckton and other large gasworks are not likely to follow an example which has signally failed; and the coal supply of London is drawn from many different sources, by railway as well as by vessels entering the Thames'. From "Illustrated London News", 1890.