PLYMOUTH |
The Encyclopaedia of Plymouth History |
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The first Labour Exchange and Unemployment Insurance Office opened in Plymouth in 1912. It was located in a former warehouse on the Plymouth side of Manor Street, which at that time was the boundary between Plymouth and Stonehouse. After a few years in an old jam factory, in 1925 it then moved in to an office within the former Quaker's Meeting Room at 32/33 Treville Street. By then there were also branch offices at 49 St Aubyn Street, Devonport, and Ferry Road, Morice Town, both managed by Mr B W Roach. In the recession of 1929 the work outgrew the office and the Labour Exchange took over the whole of the Quaker's Hall. In 1935 the manager was Mr Vernon F Chilcott. The Ferry Road office had become the main one for Devonport, under the management of Mr Louis Callaway. A small Exchange existed Commercial Road, Coxside, but it was purely for port workers.
The Labour Exchange, in the
centre of this picture, The building in Treville Street survived the Second World War and in 1953 was under the management of Mr E S Blackmore. The premises in Ferry Road also survived and Mr W D Styles was the manager there in 1953. The Commercial Road Exchange was by then run by the National Dock Labour Board. With the reconstruction work going on all around Bretonside and Treville Street slowly disappearing, it was only a matter of time before the old Quaker Hall would be demolished. It was finally demolished in the 1960s when the new Labour Exchange was opened at the junction of Buckwell Street and Kinterbury Street. Around the same time the Ferry Road premises were replaced by a new office in St Levan Road. Sources:
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