Bryant & May

The company was formed in the mid-19th century as a dry goods trader, with its first match works, the Bryant & May Factory, located in Bow, London.

The firm was formed in 1843 by Quakers William Bryant and Francis May and survived as an independent concern for over seventy years before undergoing a series of mergers with other matchmakers and later consumer products companies.

Bryant & May was involved in three of the most divisive industrial episodes of the nineteenth century: the sweating of domestic out-workers, the wage "fines" that led to the London matchgirls strike of 1888 and the scandal of "phossy jaw".

[6] In 1861 Bryant relocated the business to a three-acre site, on Fairfield Road, Bow, east London.

On nearby Bow Common, the company built a lumber mill to make splints from imported Canadian pine.

[10] The workers were paid different rates for completing a ten-hour day, depending on the type of work undertaken.

The women and girls involved in boxing up the matches had to pay the boys who brought them the frames from the drying ovens, and had to supply their own glue and brushes.

[19] Match-making companies complained about the new levy and arranged a mass-meeting at Victoria Park, London on Sunday 23 April; 3,000 match workers attended, the majority of whom were from Bryant & May.

[22] Clashes ensued, and The Times described that the police had "by their hard usage of the matchmakers and spectators, converted what was before not an ill-behaved gathering into a resisting, howling mob".

[23] The Manchester Guardian described that "policemen, strong in their sense of officialism, and bullying in their strength, approached the verge of brutality".

[22] On the same day as the meeting in Victoria Park, Queen Victoria wrote to the prime minister, William Gladstone, to protest about the tax: it is difficult not to feel considerable doubt as to the wisdom of the proposed tax on matches ... [which] will be felt by all classes to whom matches have become a necessity of life. ...

this tax which is intended should press on all equally will in fact only be severely felt by the poor which would be very wrong and most impolitic at the present moment.

[25] Bryant and May was involved in three of the most divisive industrial episodes of the nineteenth century, the sweating of domestic out-workers, the wage "fines" that led to the London matchgirls strike of 1888 and the scandal of "phossy jaw".

[18] The company rebuilt their Bow factory in 1909-1910, with many modern innovations including two tall towers housing water storage tanks for a sprinkler system.

There were three varieties including tropical fruit flavour (Vitafruit), mint (Vitamint) and a throat soother (Vitasooth).

When Swedish Match acquired Bryant & May the confectionery arm of the business was sold and eventually the new owners stopped production of Vitafruit.