Place Name
Industrial heritage. Remembering the jute workers many of Irish descent who came from Scotland in the 19thCentury to work at the London Jute Works Company’s factory. The works were established in a desolate area of the Navigation known locally as Spike Island in 1866. Many of the new labourers were children who had come from Dundee, the traditional centre of the jute industry in Scotland, where this fibrous material made rope, twine, sacks and matting. Indeed Dundee was known as Juteopolis, such was its connection with the city. The factory’s location meant there were many floods making conditions particularly grim and eventually a local voluntary fund was raised paying for prevention work. The jute works closed in 1882 after the firm went bankrupt, it was replaced four years later by the Ediswan factory which was expanding.
