Mick Hartley

The old Bryant and May factory in Bow:

And with bonus helicopter:

This is where Annie Besant helped to organise the Union of Women Match Makers in 1888:

The Match Workers stayed out for three weeks. The London Trades Council, at the Strike Committee's invitation, arranged a meeting with the employers. At that meeting, Bryant and May conceded almost all the women's demands. It was agreed that all fines and most deductions would be abolished, that the 'pennies' [a deduction made for the employment of girls to carry out material for the box-filling women which had continued long after the practice had died out] were to be restored, that 3d was to be restored to the packers and that there would be no victimisation and the firm would recognise a union formed by the women.

On 27 July 1888, the inaugural meeting of the Union of Women Match Makers was held. Clementina Black from the Women's Trade Union League gave advice on rules, subscriptions and elections. Annie Besant was elected the first secretary. With money left over from the strike fund, plus some money raised from a benefit at the Princess Theatre, enough money was raised to enable the union to acquire permanent premises. By October, 666 members had been enrolled [their numbers having swelled by the return of women from hop picking]. By the end of the year, the union changed its rules and name. It became the Matchmakers Union, open to men and women, and the following year sent its first delegate to the Trade Union Congress. Although the Matchmakers' Union continued to exist only until 1903, the action taken in 1888 had both immediate and long-term reverberations in the trade union movement.

More on the matchgirls strike here. The building is now the smart residential Bow Quarter.

This (old) photo from the south gives a better idea of the size of the place: