Cigar Makers of London

Tobacco was imported, packed into large hogs heads and stored in bonded warehouses in Penington street (now Tobacco dock). It was kept there until the duty was paid and then sold to the manufacturer to be turned into cigars, pipe tobacco, cigarettes or snuff. Examples of Manufacturers are J & S Hill Shoreditch or Godefrey Phillips 112 Commercial street. The Cigar makers were seated in rows, each had their own work area. A leaf of tobacco was spread out on the bench and they then made gashes in the leaf. The next step was to take a few fragments of the tobacco leaf and roll them up to form a cigar, place it against a guide and cut it to a given length and lastly take a narrow strip of tobacco leaf and roll the cigar up into it in a spiral then twist it at one end. Only a few seconds were needed to complete a cigar. On average they worked 8am – 7pm with half an hour for lunch plus a half day on Saturday. Overtime meant working up to 10 or 11pm or even all night. Many were immigrants from the Netherlands and would earn anything from 4 shillings – 14 shillings a week.