Bondage in the Bakehouse

Don't get too excited, folks - this is about bakers, in Victorian London. In short, they had a rather bad time of it. In the mid-century, they worked 18-20 hours a day, perhaps with a little sleep on a wooden board in the heat of the bakehouse. They were, mostly, ill - " I do not attribute their liability to disease entirely to overwork. They are exposed to heat, which, while it exhausts them, renders them liable to colds, and seems to favour determination of blood to the head; to dust from the flour, which irritates the lungs; and to severe exertion, which leads to palpitation, diseases of the heart, and apoplectic seizure ... The less severe diseases of which they complain are colds, rheumatism, indigestion, bowel complaints, skin diseases, and bleeding at the nose. Ruptures are common among them. I should think that there is no class of men, excepting perhaps the grinders of Sheffield, so liable to severe diseases of the chest as the bakers." They were, interestingly, mostly immigrants from the provinces: "The great majority of the bakers are from Scotland, a large number from Devonshire, and several from the other western counties: a few from Ireland. Scotland is the great nursery of bakers. The master bakers in Scotland and the western counties of England are in the habit of employing only apprentices, who are dismissed as soon as they are out of their time, and are thrown on the English labour-market. Most of them, I believe, come to London." 
     Workplaces were generally dark, cramped and insanitary. Here's a brief survey of some typical establishments in 1860:

1. Under-ground - two ovens - no day light - no ventilation - very hot and sulphurous
2. Under-ground - no day light - often flooded - very had smells - overrun with rats - no ventilation.
3. Under-ground - two ovens - no day-light - very hot and sulphurous - low ceiling - no ventilation but what comes from the doors - very large business.
4. Under-ground - three ovens - use gas at all times - very hot and sulphurous.
5. Under-ground bake-house - very dark - obliged to use gas - not high enough for a man 5 ft. 9 in. to stand upright in without hitting his head - very hot - one oven.
6. Two ovens - very dark - full of cold draughts - the rain falls on the man that works at one of the ovens - very small bed in the flour loft.
 7. Two ovens - half under-ground - no daylight - no ventilation, but what comes in at the door - privy on top of the oven - very hot.
8. Under-ground - bake-house very small and hot - ventilation from a hatchway - the men are obliged to go out for air to recover themselves before they can eat.
9. The privy in the bake-house - bed-room under the stairs.
10. Half under-ground - small bake-house - privy in it - very bad smells.

Makes you feel peckish, doesn't it? More about bakers and baking, here.