Records of the London County Council Public Control Department relating to Shops and Markets, 1886-1965, including papers on the catering trade; sale of fireworks; mock auctions; analysis of statistics of shops and stalls in the county of London; effect of the First and Second World Wars on shops; Consumer Rationing Order, 1941; sale of contraceptives from automatic machines; the Shops Act, 1912 and 1913; Shops (Early Closing) Acts, 1920 and 1921; Shops (Hours of Closing) Act, 1928; Shops Act, 1950; Government Investigation into hours and conditions of Employment in shops and Select Committee on Shop Assistants; Shops (Sunday Trading Restriction) Act, 1936; Fabrics (Misdescription) Act, 1913; Departmental Committee on Hours of Employment of Young Persons in unregulated occupations; Young Persons (Employment) Act, 1938; Covent Garden Market; Billingsgate Fish Market; Deptford Cattle Market; Whitechapel Hay Market; street trading; register of shops for Sunday Trading and examples of posters for public display giving notice of orders, regulations, and so on.

Reports, including Select Committee on Shop Hours Regulation Bill Report, 1886; Select Committee on Shop Hours Bill Report and Special Report, 1892; Departmental Committee on the Shops (Early Closing) Acts 1920 and 1921 Report and Evidence, 1927; Departmental Committee on the Wholesale Food Markets of London Reports, 1920-1921.

Letter from Richard Oastler of Fixby Hall, Huddersfield, [West Riding of Yorkshire] to John Foster, Esq of 1 Vincent Square, Westminster, 23 Jun 1833. Chiefly relating to the Ten Hours Bill. Lord Althorp had advocated 2 sets of 8 hours as the maximum for children under 14 to work. 'The news came just in time for your Hudd meeting - one hour before we began - & thus before 15,000 to 20,000 people I had the opportunity of blowing the whole scheme to rags' [referring to a speech Oastler made at a meeting on 18 Jun 1833. Urging the London section not to yield a single point: 'If they yield they disgrace themselves and give us another year's excitement and in my opinion hurry on a bloody revolution'.

Autograph, with signature. With Oastler's black seal, bearing the motto: 'The Altar, the Throne and the Cottage'.