Turku 1000
Stop 31 of 50
1880s–1890s

Factories, shipyards and the working class

In the late 1800s chimneys rose along the Aura. Shipyards built torpedo boats for the Russian navy, women spun cotton and rolled cigarettes, and the workers of Turku built the first workers’ house in Finland. At the end of a long week, many of them went to the sauna.

Industrial age · Grand Duchy
The big story

Factories, shipyards and the working class

After the railway came, Turku grew faster than it had for centuries. People moved in from the countryside to work in shipyards, mills and workshops. They worked long days for low pay, and they began to organise. In 1899 a new political party was born in a wooden house in Turku.

A growing town

  • More people. Turku had 19,617 inhabitants in 1870 and 30,096 in 1890, about half as many again Well documented.
  • From the countryside. Most newcomers were Finnish-speaking people from the countryside. Around 1900 the share of Swedish speakers in Turku fell to about one in five Well documented.
  • Crafts first. In the middle of the century Turku was, after Helsinki, the most important town for crafts in Finland. Large-scale industry arrived slowly and only took off around 1900 Well documented.
  • What Turku made. An encyclopedia of 1911 lists sail-cloth, cotton and tobacco as Turku’s products, along with large sawmills. It calls Turku second only to Helsinki for trade, with timber and butter as exports Well documented.

Shipyards on the Aura

  • Crichton. The foundry that Cowie and Eriksson opened in 1842 was taken over in 1862 by the Scottish engineer William Crichton. As W:m Crichton & C:o it turned to shipbuilding, and its first slipway was ready in 1864 Well documented.
  • Ships for the empire. Crichton’s main customer was the Russian Empire, above all the Imperial Navy. The yard built torpedo boats for it Well documented.
  • The biggest employer. In 1883 Crichton bought the neighbouring Åbo Skeppswarf yard and became the biggest employer in Turku Likely.
  • A rival across the river. In 1874 Carl Korsman founded Åbo Mekaniska Verkstad on the east bank of the Aura. It had 119 workers in 1875 and about 400 in 1881–1882, then shrank. In 1898 its site became a new shipyard, Ab Vulcan Well documented.
  • A long line. Crichton and Vulcan merged in 1924. Their yard is the ancestor of the shipyard that builds cruise ships in Turku today (stop 49) Well documented.

Cotton and tobacco

  • Barker’s mill. John Barker, an English machine builder who had worked at the Finlayson mill in Tampere, started a cotton mill on the bank of the Aura. It began to spin yarn and make wadding on 9 June 1846 Well documented.
  • A workforce of women. The mill had 72 workers in 1888 and 231 in 1898. In 1903 it had 381 workers, and 318 of them were women Well documented.
  • Strict rules. The mill’s work rules of 1896 said: “Working hours must be strictly kept” Well documented.
  • Cigarettes by the million. Pehr Cerelius Rettig began making tobacco products in Turku in 1845, and cigarettes in 1856, at first rolled by hand. The factory made about 2.5 million cigarettes in 1871 and nearly 340 million in 1907. Its building is now an arts centre Well documented.

Long days, low pay

  • Children at work. A Finnish law of 1889 allowed children aged 12 to 15 to work up to seven hours a day. Young people aged 15 to 18 could be kept at work for up to 14 hours a day, including two hours for meals. Children were not allowed to work at night Well documented.
  • Accidents. A law of 1895, in force from 1898, gave injured workers three-fifths of their wages from the seventh day after an accident Well documented.
  • Women in the mills. Across Finland about two-thirds of textile workers were women, and tobacco factories also employed many women Well documented.
  • A six-day week. The working week had six days, and days were long. Even in 1914 a normal week at the Crichton yard was 56 hours Well documented.

Workers organise

  • An association. The Turku Workers’ Association was founded in the mid-1880s. Sources give 1885 or 1887 Debated.
  • A house of their own. In 1889 the association built the first workers’ house in Finland, at the corner of Eerikinkatu and Ursininkatu, designed by Arthur Kajanus. Its banner read “Freedom, Brotherhood, Equality” Well documented.
  • A party is born. From 17 to 20 July 1899 the Finnish Workers’ Party was founded at the Turku workers’ house. In 1903 it became the Social Democratic Party of Finland Well documented.
  • A Turku chairman. The party’s first chairman, N. R. af Ursin, had long been active in the Turku association and started its library Well documented.
  • “Rebuilding Port Arthur”. In the early 1900s a workers’ district of small wooden houses grew up and got the nickname Port Arthur, “Portsa”. The story goes that children asked the builders what they were doing and were told “rebuilding Port Arthur”, the Russian port lost in the war with Japan Legend.
How do we know?

Factory records, censuses and company histories give the numbers. A recent thesis at the University of Turku went through the Barker mill’s archives name by name. Sources do not always agree: one company history says the Barker mill opened in 1845, the archives say production began in 1846, and the year the workers’ association was founded is given as either 1885 or 1887.

Population 30,096 (1890)
Vulcan

Drag the slider, or tap a building.

Industrial Turku, 1840–1900. Drag the slider to see the factories appear, and tap a building.A schematic skyline, not a map. The buildings are not in their real places.
Why it matters

The factories turned Turku into a working-class town, and the town became the birthplace of the Finnish labour party. The laws on child labour and accidents were the first small steps towards today’s rules on working hours and safety. And the shipyards on the Aura started a line of work that still goes on: Turku builds ships today.

On the lighter side

Public saunas and washing day

Before running water and washing machines, getting yourself and your clothes clean was hard work. In Turku, the river, the sauna and a spring in Kupittaa were all part of keeping clean.

Saunas in town

  • A sauna in every third house. Already in the 1600s at least a third of the town houses in Turku had a sauna Well documented.
  • By the river. Records from 1697 mention a sauna on the bank of the Aura next to a spot where laundry was rinsed in the river Well documented.
  • No sauna at home. Workers who lived in crowded rented rooms in the late 1800s often had no sauna of their own Likely.
  • Public saunas. In Helsinki there were about 70 public saunas in the 1880s. Factory workers went there especially on weekday evenings and on Saturdays, and washerwomen scrubbed the bathers for an extra fee. From 1911 Helsinki’s rules required separate sections for men and women Well documented.
  • Turku’s saunas. Turku also had public saunas, but we have not found a list of them or of their prices from this time Likely.

Kupittaa: a spring and a spa

  • A healing spring. The spring in Kupittaa was used as a health spring from the early 1680s Well documented.
  • Drinking water. In the 1700s most of Turku’s drinking water came from Kupittaa Well documented.
  • A spa park. The park was founded in 1820, and in 1824 a pump room was built. Charles Bassi’s small eight-sided spring pavilion still stands there Well documented.
  • Popular, then gone. The spa was most popular from the 1840s to the 1870s, and the bathhouse closed in 1885. In 1910 an outdoor swimming arena was completed in the park Well documented.

Washing day

  • A day of hard work. Washing was mostly women’s work. A big wash of sheets and clothes could take a whole day, and it was done perhaps once a month or even less often Likely.
  • Ash and soap. Laundry was boiled with lye made from wood ash, or with soap, then scrubbed on a washboard or beaten with a wooden bat Likely.
  • Rinsing in the Aura. Clothes were rinsed in the river. In winter this meant a hole in the ice Likely.
  • Drying in the sauna. Records from the 1600s describe a Turku laundress warming and drying clothes in a sauna Well documented.
  • New pegs. Wooden clothes pegs were used from the early 1800s, and pegs with a spring were developed in the second half of the century Likely.
Washing day by the river. Step through the day and switch between summer and winter.A schematic scene. Most steps describe common practice in Finland, not records from Turku.
How do we know?

Everyday chores were rarely written down. What we know comes from court and town records, from objects in museums and from people’s memories collected later. The facts about Kupittaa come from the City of Turku, and the 1600s saunas from research on the town’s records. For public saunas we only found good figures for Helsinki, so we use them as a comparison.

Why it matters

Clean water and washing were questions of health. Dirty water spread disease, and the sauna was for many people the only place to get properly clean. Sauna culture is still part of everyday life in Finland, and in 2020 Finnish sauna culture was added to UNESCO’s list of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity.

Sources and further reading

  1. Crichton (Turku shipyard) — Cowie & Eriksson 1842, William Crichton from 1862, the Russian navy as customer, the Okhta yard and the merger of 1924.
  2. Grace’s Guide: Wm. Crichton and Co (Finland) — the first slipway, the purchase of Åbo Skeppswarf in 1883 and John Eager.
  3. Vulcan (shipyard) — Åbo Mekaniska Verkstad (1874), its workforce, and Ab Vulcan (21 May 1898).
  4. Meyer Turku. History: shipbuilding on the Aura since 1737, Crichton and Vulcan on opposite banks.
  5. Jalonen, J.: thesis on the Barker cotton mill (University of Turku, PDF): founding, start of production on 9 June 1846, workforce, owners and work rules of 1896 (in Finnish).
  6. Rettigin tupakkatehdas (Finnish Wikipedia): production from 1845, cigarettes from 1856 and the output of 1871 and 1907 (in Finnish).
  7. Turun työväentalo (Finnish Wikipedia): the workers’ house of 1889 and the founding of the Workers’ Party in 1899 (in Finnish).
  8. SDP: history — the Finnish Workers’ Party founded in Turku in 1899.
  9. Finland: its public and private economy (1902), on the protection of workers: the laws of 1889 and 1895.
  10. Turku — population table 1850–1900 and the late arrival of large-scale industry.
  11. VIII District, Turku — the Port Arthur workers’ district and the story of its name.
  12. City of Turku. History of Kupittaa Park: the spring, the pump room of 1824, the bathhouse until 1885 and the swimming arena of 1910.
  13. University of Turku publication on bathing and saunas in 17th-century Turku: saunas in town houses and the sauna by a laundry spot on the Aura in 1697 (in Finnish).
  14. Helsinki City Museum: public saunas — about 70 in Helsinki in the 1880s, factory workers and washerwomen.

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