New Reading Glasses For William Lever
December 9, 2009 Book Reviews No CommentsI’m currently reading a biography about William Lever, an intriguing chap who built an empire on soap. In fact whilst reading it i realised that i should invest in some designer reading glasses.
Born in Bolton 19th September 1851, he grew up in a middle class area of Bolton and worked for his dad in a grocery store, within 20 years he had cleaned up his act literally, and for that matter the whole of the country. Soap in the mid 19th century was a fairly new invention. Personal hygiene was not big before then and fragrance became big business.
William Lever himself was an odd chap, he had open air bedrooms installed in three of of his many houses that he had custom built. When I say open air bedrooms I mean just that, he slept completely open to the elements, a practise that was raved about by many prominent figures of the time, it was not unusual for the tycoon to be found waking up with a covering of snow on his blankets.
He also built an entire village for his workers, the now infamous port sunlight in Liverpool was a totally self sufficient town, entirely made up of his workers, when most people lived in slums, the people who worked for Lever were given more than 10 time the living space than the average household complete with front and back gardens, which Lever had gardeners keep in good condition.
His generosity did not stop there, every child in the village from the ages of 8 to 14 were presented with a different novel each year, signed by Lever himself.
The village like i said was totally self sufficient with allotments, dance halls, museums and dining halls. It’s amazing to see how much affect one man can have on the lives of so many people.