Deal porter


The deal porters were a specialist group of workers in London's docks. They handled baulks of softwood or "deal", stacking them up to 60 feet high in quayside warehouses. This was a demanding and dangerous job. It required physical strength, dexterity and a head for heights, to such an extent that they were nicknamed "Blondins" after the famous acrobat, Charles Blondin. Deal porters wore special leather headgear with long "aprons" over their shoulders in order to protect their heads and necks from wooden splinters.
Their trade was a notably hazardous one. The New Survey of London Life and Labour, published in 1928, noted:
Most of the deal porters worked at the Surrey Commercial Docks in Rotherhithe, which specialised in timber. The workers were represented by the Port of London Deal Porters' Union. They were eventually rendered obsolete by the 1940s as mechanisation provided a better and cheaper way of moving timber cargo, and less arduous jobs became available elsewhere.
There are a number of commemorations of the deal porters in Rotherhithe. At Canada Water there is a sculpture in their honour, designed by . There is a street named "Deal Porters Way", a path named "Deal Porters Walk", and a new public square is under construction alongside the new Canada Water Library, to be named "Deal Porters Square". The Compass pub in Rotherhithe Street was formerly named "The Deal Porter".