2-888-374 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Great Wool-Floor at the London Docks, 1850. 'The vastly increasing importance of the Colonial wool trade...has induced the directors of the London Dock Company to enlarge...the warehouse...and to provide therein long ranges of glass roofing...for the advantageous inspection of wool...'. View of '...the convenient adaptation of the floors for stowing and shewing wool. The public sales of wool...are attended by dealers and manufacturers from Yorkshire [and] buyers from the Continent. Every bale...is inspected by drawing out a portion of wool, which, after examination, is thrown on the floor; which to a stranger has a most extraordinary appearance, so much lying on the gangways, that the parties inspecting it frequently walk knee deep in loose wool. These operations give employment to 200 men, exclusive of clerks and foremen'. The value of annual wool importation was £2,000,000. From "Illustrated London News", 1850.