The thought occurred to the writer the other day, when seated at his
desk, as an examining officer of Customs, in one of the extensive
bonded vaults which are within sight of that famous historic pile the
Tower, that a brief description of these warehouses—which possess in
some respects features that are unique—might prove interesting to
general readers. We do not know if any previous attempt has been made
in this direction; if so, it has not come within the scope of the
writer’s observation during an experience in London as a Civil servant
of twenty years.
In this brief sketch there are certain reflections that occur which may
perhaps be worthy of some consideration. One of these is, that even in
the most busy parts of the City there are extremely few persons—though
they may have daily passed along the leading thoroughfares for
years—who know anything about the interiors of the vast warehouses
and immense repositories for merchandise of all sorts, which abound
in the business area of London, east of Temple Bar, extending far
down both banks of the Thames. We do not refer especially to the
great docks, such as the London, St Katharine, East and West India,
Royal Albert, Surrey Commercial, and other similar emporiums of
commerce, which form so remarkable a feature of the Thames, and are
only rivalled by the huge docks on the Mersey. Those establishments,
it must be allowed, attract a large number of visitors, although
these are chiefly strangers from the country; the strictly commercial
classes of the City, unless intimately connected with the shipping
interest, but rarely extending their explorations thitherward. Some
favoured citizens and ‘country cousins,’ by the privilege of what is
called technically a ‘tasting order,’ may, however, traverse miles of
cellars, filled with the choicest vintages, and in the wine-vaults may
behold the most curious fungoid forms, white as snow, pendent from the
vaulted roofs. They may survey, as at the London Docks, thirty thousand
casks of brandy in a single vault; or traverse the famous ‘Spice’
warehouse, redolent with the aromatic odours of the East; or if they
have a penchant for Jamaica rum, by extending their visit to the West
India Dock, they can see the largest collection of rum-casks to be
found in any bonded warehouse on the habitable globe. But it is not to
these colossal establishments that we wish now to refer, interesting
and important as they may be, but rather to the less pretentious
and smaller warehouses, forming a group styled officially ‘Uptown
Warehouses.’
No one passing along Crutched Friars—the very name suggests that
strange blending of the past with modern commercial activity, which is
observable in London as in other large centres of population—would from
external signs surmise for a moment, that under his feet and around
him there were acres of vaults containing tens of thousands of casks
of port, sherry, and various descriptions of spirit. Yet such is the
fact; and as a matter of detail, it may be stated that the stock of
_port_ wine in one of these vaults comprises the finest brands imported
into the metropolis. The firm of B—— is well known throughout the
commercial world of London, and is believed to be upwards of a century
old. The original founder, who sprang from a very humble stock, died
worth, it is said, two million pounds sterling, amassed by the skilful
and honourable conduct of a bonding business, which had grown from
very modest conditions indeed, to rival the huge proportions of the
docks themselves. In fact, the tendency of the last few years has been
decidedly to withdraw the bonding trade from these formerly gigantic
establishments, and to concentrate it in the Uptown Warehouses. The
result of this has been to lower the shares of the Dock Companies to
the minimum level compatible with commercial solvency; while, owing
to the keen rivalry with the smaller and more progressive bonding
warehouses elsewhere, the charges have been reduced to a point that
would have surprised merchants of past days. One great reason for the
modern change which we have noted, is unquestionably the superior
accessibility of the Uptown Warehouses to the City proper, and their
comparative nearness to the various railway termini. Time and distance,
in these days of excessive speed, are prime factors, and must in the
end assert themselves. Besides, it is evident to all thinking men that
we have reached a crisis in the transport of merchandise, and that the
railway is becoming daily more omnipotent.
Though we have hitherto referred only to the casks of vinous liquors,
technically known as ‘wet goods,’ stored in the vaults, it must not
be inferred that they constitute the sole description of merchandise
contained within the walls of these warehouses. Tea, inclosed in
chests, piled tier upon tier, fills a large space, and yields a very
considerable amount of revenue to the Crown. Perhaps of all goods
now comprised in the tariff as ‘dutiable,’ the collection of the tea
duty, which is at present assessed at sixpence per pound, is the
simplest and least expensive. In B——’s premises, where the stock is
comparatively small, the annual yield of duty to the revenue is nearly
two hundred thousand pounds. It is, however, far otherwise with the
duty paid on ‘wet goods,’ wine, perhaps, excepted, the rates of which,
governed by strength, are, for wines containing less than twenty-six
degrees of alcoholic strength—being mainly of French production—at one
shilling per gallon; and for those of a greater degree of strength, but
below the limit of forty-two degrees—which is the usual standard of
Portuguese and Spanish wines—at two shillings and sixpence per gallon.
This difference in the assessment of duty on the basis of strength
between the vintages of France and Portugal, has been for some years
a sore point with the latter government. Various protests have been
made against its retention, which it must be admitted seems to press
somewhat hardly upon the trade of the Iberian peninsula with this
country; but as yet, while we write, no satisfactory solution has been
arrived at of what is a real _quæstio vexata_. The collection of the
spirit duties involves very considerable nicety and calculation—whisky
perhaps excepted, which is officially known as British Plain Spirits,
and the duty on which is assessed at ten shillings per gallon of proof
strength. In the case of all other descriptions of spirits, however,
the method is rendered more intricate, owing to a recent regulation
which requires the determination of the degree of what is styled
‘obscuration’ by distillation, the duty being charged at a uniform rate
of ten shillings and fourpence per proof gallon.
The laboratory tests are in the Customs establishment of a highly
scientific character, demanding on the part of the operators
considerable skill and knowledge of chemistry. The instruments used
in the various processes—of which Sikes’s hydrometer and Mr Keen’s
are best known—are of very ingenious construction, and require nice
handling and steadiness of eye.
The gauging of casks, which is performed by a large staff of, generally
speaking, skilful and highly meritorious officers, is quite a science
in itself, and requires years of constant practice to make the operator
thoroughly proficient. But in this, as in other arts, there are of
course various degrees of excellence. In the Customs service—and the
same thing will doubtless apply to the Excise—there are gaugers who
stand head and shoulders above their fellows, and who appear to have
the power by merely glancing at a cask, as if by intuition, to tell
its ‘content,’ as its holding capacity is officially styled. Although
it has been the usage in certain quarters to speak in contemptuous
terms of the functions of this deserving class of public servants, and
to apply to them the opprobrious epithet of ‘dip-sticks,’ we have no
sympathy with such detraction, which is quite unmerited.
It would be impossible within the brief limits of this paper to
describe minutely the various operations in bond which are daily going
on at these stations. Such comprise Vatting, Blending, Mixing, Racking,
Reducing, Fortifying, Bottling, Filtering, &c., and would in themselves
suffice for a separate article.
Having given a very meagre outline of the multifarious duties and
processes carried on at the various bonding vaults in London and
elsewhere, we may perhaps fitly conclude with a brief description of
certain antiquarian features of special interest, to be met with in
Messrs B——’s premises. As previously remarked, the monastic character
of one of the leading approaches is conveyed in the title of Crutched
Friars. But it is evident from other and various remains that its
site includes a most important portion of ancient _Londinum_. A
considerable extent of the old Roman wall, upwards of a hundred feet,
in an excellent state of preservation, ‘the squared stones and bonding
tiles’ being marvellously well defined, forms the boundary of what is
known as the ‘South’ Vault. On a higher level, styled the Vat Floor, in
the medieval portion of the City wall, is to be seen a fine specimen
of the Roman casement, which is said to be the only one now remaining
in the City. According to the best antiquarian authorities, these
remains form a part of the circumvallation of London begun in the reign
of Constantine and completed by Theodosius. As is only natural, these
relics are highly prized by the Antiquarian Society, which has in no
ordinary terms expressed its appreciation of the zealous care bestowed
by the proprietors in preserving these unique and priceless treasures
of the past.