As you travel from Whitechapel to Stratford along the A11, just before Bow Flyover the road divides into two, forming a dual carriageway.
There is a church, Bow Church, in the centre reservation.
In front of the church there is a statue of William Gladstone.
The statue has red hands (you can check this on Streetview).
The story behind this is that back in 1870…..something, William Gladstone wanted to put a tax on matches.
This caused outcry and much panic buying of matches amongst the population as this was the only means by which people had to light fires.
Bryant, of Bryant & May the match makers who had their factory adjacent to what is now the north portal to the Blackwall Tunnel, was equally outraged as this would mean a cut in his profit margins.
Eventually, Gladstone elected to not impose the tax on matches.
Bryant was so delighted with this decision, that he decided to honour Gladstone by paying to have a statue of him cast in bronze, and placed at the location where it is today.
Only Bryant didn’t pay for the statue.
What he did was he stopped one shilling from each of the girl’s and women’s wages who worked for him, to pay for the statue.
I can only guess that in 1870 one shilling would’ve been a significant amount of money.
Needless to say that this wasn’t well recieved by the women who worked for him.
On the day the statue was unveiled, a number of them attended the ceremony.
They cut their arms and bled onto the plinth on which the statue was erected.
To this day, Gladstone statue’s hands remain painted red.
The council clean off the red paint periodically.
The hands get re-painted again in red..
~150 years on from the event.
I find that extraordinary.
I’ll bet it isn’t a man wielding the paint brush.
