A paper ticket from London’s West India Docks, 1872. Much dock work was casual, handed out day by day. A ‘Preferable Labourer’ ticket gave its holder preference when casual men were taken on, so it was very valuable.
Record, Folk and Modern are kept apart, and each one carries its source.
London Museum holds the ticket that the East & West India Dock Company issued to dock labourer Henry Stevens in September 1872 (object 2011.90/25), a paper card 95 by 135 millimetres. As a ‘Preferable Labourer’ he was not on the permanent staff, but he was given preference when casual men were taken on, day by day. The museum calls such a ticket very valuable.
To keep his ticket, Stevens had to present himself every day, even on days he was not picked, and a man taken on might be laid off within a few hours. London’s casual dockers long protested the early-morning ‘call-on’, when crowds massed at the dock gates hoping a foreman would choose them. In the great strike of 1889 they asked for fair selection ‘without favouritism’.
Wishlore note: this is not a charm, and no one wore it as one. We include it because it shows what hoping for work looked like for London’s casual dockers: a card worth keeping, and a crowd at the gate each morning. The ticket is catalogued in London Museum’s Port & River collection.
