Did you know that apart from Lancashire the greatest concentration of Boulton & Watt steam engines was in London, demonstrating the enormous and often overlooked significance of London as an industrial center? The story of the many industries found in the capital is described in turn in this fascinating book : there are long-lost breweries, the story of the world’s first plastic material, the first synthetic dye, a gas works in Westminster, power stations, sulphuric acid factories and the River Thames full of colliers. Glass works, leather works and potteries lined the south bank. Food was imported to supply well-known manufacturers—Peak Frean, Tate & Lyle, Crosse & Blackwell, Heinz. Huguenot refugees dominated the silk industry, the match girls of Bryant & May went down with phossy jaw and East End immigrants sweated in the textile industry. The list goes on.
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