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© Transport for London
Collection of London Transport Museum
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Billiard room for volunteers at Empress Hall, Earl's Court. These facilities were set up for volunteers during the Railway strike of September 1919.

Photographed by Topical Press, Sep 1919

Location: Earl's Court, SW5

Inventory no: 2005/5830

20th Century London caption: Men play snooker in a billiard room at Empress Hall. The Underground Group set up this room for those who volunteered to drive buses and trains during the Railway Strike of September 1919. The notice chalked on the wall suggests that this room was used as a balloon repair station during the First World War. The Railway Strike was only one of many industrial conflicts that took place in 1919 between the labour force and the establishment. The railway workers' grievance was that the government was trying to lower wages by applying a wartime pay agreement unfairly. Although volunteers kept the transport system moving, the strike was successful and the pay cuts were not implemented.

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