Port Sunlight

July 8, 2024

Sunlight household soap was introduced by the British company Lever Brothers in 1884. It was the world’s first packaged, branded laundry soap. Before this, one had to go to the grocery store and buy a chunk of soap, keeping in one’s budget. Sunlight came prepackaged and was easy to purchase.

The soap formula was invented by chemist William Hough Watson, who became an early business partner. Watson created a new soap using glycerin and vegetable oils such as palm oil rather than tallow (animal fats).

Port Sunlight is a model village on the other side of the Mersey from Liverpool. Built by Lever Brothers to accommodate workers in its soap factory, construction work began in 1888. The name is derived from Lever Brothers most popular brand, Sunlight.

In 1887, Lever Brothers began looking for a new site to expand its soap-making business, which was based in Warrington at the time. The company bought 56 acres, which became Port Sunlight. William Lever built his works and a model village to house his employees. Today, Port Sunlight covers 130 acres.

Port Sunlight was built for Victorian workers at the Lever Brothers soap factory. William Lever personally supervised the village’s planning and employed nearly thirty architects. Between 1899 and 1914, 800 houses were built to house a population of 3,500. The garden village had allotments and public buildings, including the Lady Lever Art Gallery, a cottage hospital, schools, a concert hall, an open-air swimming pool, a church, and a temperance hotel.

Lord Leverhulme’s aim was “to socialize and Christianize business relations and get back to that close family brotherhood that existed in the good old days of hand labor.”

The historical significance of Port Sunlight is influenced by William Morris’s ideas and the Arts and Crafts Movement.

Lever believed in the Garden Suburb movement, prioritizing the importance of space between buildings and access to gardens and open spaces.

Originally, only employees of Lever Brothers Ltd. could rent the houses. Today, it is a lovely neighborhood for anyone.

I must admit that I am cynical about the concept of “good living conditions” for workers coming from a man of wealth. It reeks of a paternalistic attitude as a form of control. However, Lever believed in sharing the profits of labor with the workers. It was said at the time: “The last and best word we can say about the village of Port Sunlight is that the aim of its founder has been based on the belief that sympathy for the wants and well-being of our fellow men may find a large expression even in our business dealings”.