The sixth of a series of articles tracing the fascinating and varied history
of the building the Museum now occupies
In the last article we looked at the Brewery, which was in the building for more than 25 years. In April and May 1894, the first advertisements for penny packets of Lotor Washing Powder are seen in the Bath Chronicle.
It is not clear when David Evans (owner of Lotor) takes the former Brewery premises. The reference to tenants in a Bath Chronicle report of 1902 may be to Lotor, but their first appearance in the Bath Directory is not until 1911.
We have in the Museum archive a remarkable photograph of the ground floor with Lotor workers making soap powder.
It is very rare for a workplace photograph to be un-posed like this – a ‘snap’. All the workers, except for one young man, are women, and we can date it to c.1920 by hairstyles and dress. During the First World War, women had taken on traditional male jobs, but working class women has always worked and the soap powder factory was lighter factory work more ‘suitable’ for women. The photograph is also of interest because we can see the cast iron pillars that hold up the mezzanine floor.
However, in the 1930s Lotor has a difficult time in business because two terrible things happen. In 1930, the founder of the business David Evans takes his own life; there is an inquest report in the Bath Chronicle which is shocking because it contains excessive detail that would not be reported on today. An obituary mentions that he had also been developing ‘a plastic material’, some sort of prototype vinyl flooring.
In 1937 there is a serious fire. The Chronicle 17 April has a half-page report:
* MYSTERY FEATURES OF BATH FIRE
* MISSING CASH BOX AND OPEN DOOR – Soap Factory Destroyed
* BUILDING ENVELOPED IN MASS OF SEETHING FLAMES
Fire broke out on the night of Tuesday 13 April 1937:
“The business carried on there is the manufacture of scouring powder, soap powder and other similar commodities. A considerable amount of packing is also undertaken. Part of the first floor premises is rented by Mr W.H. Cantello and used for the making of floor polish, hundreds of tins of which helped to feed the flames.”
So as well as the chemicals needed for the soap powder, there was cardboard packaging, and Mr Cantello’s stock on the mezzanine floor:
“In the polish-making room were two large baths of polish, several bags of tallow and some beeswax. These highly inflammable materials were a mass of seething flame. In the basement was stored a quantity of white spirit, which fortunately was un-touched.”
It is miraculous that no-one was injured.
The fire was discovered by Edie Norman, a ‘young lady’ who lived in the cottage adjoining the factory, with her mother – she raised the alarm and the Fire Brigade arrived at 10.20pm; it took till 3.00am to control. When Edie came home at 10.15pm, she saw the bottom door of the factory was open, but didn’t think anything untoward as “they do sometimes go in late”. Fire mainly affected the top floor, attic and roof rafters, because of the polish stored up there; portions of the roof fell in as the rafters burned. If you stand in the Museum ticket desk and shop space, you can see that the wooden beam above the shop counter is blackened from the fire.
Mr Harding the manager was alerted at 11.30pm. Everything had been fine when he locked-up at 6.30pm, he said, and no lights or heating were left on. But: “An extraordinary thing was that the bottom door was open. My cash box is missing from the office and has not yet been found. Fortunately there was not a great deal in it – about £5 in notes.” Mr Cantello said he left at 4.50pm and everything was in order; he had turned off the gas, and had not made any polish that day.
I can find no follow-up reports to explain why the door was open and the cash box missing – so it remains a mystery.
Memories are stirred by the report. The ‘Bath & County Notes’ column in the same issue of the paper says:
“A correspondent tells me that the site of the Morford Street factory, which was partially destroyed by fire on Tuesday evening, was formerly a tennis court … Perhaps other readers can supply documentary evidence …”
The following week someone replies to say:
“I have a map of Bath (1786) showing a Tennis Court in Morford Street, or Murfet Street, behind the Riding School.”
Lotor remains in business until at least 1939/40 – it is listed in the 1939 Bath Directory. But no Directories are published during the war, and the first post-war edition in 1947 does not list it.
In the final article of this series we will trace the building’s uses post-war, its narrow escape in The Sack of Bath, and what happened next.
Full Series: links added after publishing
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 7
Building complete timeline can be viewed here
Ann Cullis November 2024