page_title: Joseph Watson, 1st Baron Manton
section_title: Lever Brothers and Jurgens
hierarchical_section_title: Joseph Watson, 1st Baron Manton / Soap business / Lever Brothers and Jurgens
caption_attribution_description: English: "Soapy Joe's Shaft", Whitehall Road, Leeds. A ventilation shaft of the former Leeds Electricity Department's sub-station. Ventilated a tunnel from Whitehall Rd north under Northern St, Queen St, to the Headrow sub-station. Known as "Lucy Boxes" as manufactured by Lucy Foundry, Oxford. 2 or 3 others remain in Leeds, one named "Queenie's Shaft". Named due to its proximity to the soap factory of Joseph Watson &amp; Sons, Whitehall Soap Works, known locally as "Soapy Joe's". Legend in high-relief: "DANGER. High voltage sub-station. City of Leeds Electricity Department, 1 Whitehall Road, Leeds".
context_page_description: Joseph Watson, 1st Baron Manton was an English industrialist from Leeds, Yorkshire.
  He was chairman of Joseph Watson & Sons Ltd, soap manufacturers, of Leeds and a director of the London and North-Western Railway, in the late 19th century the largest joint stock company in the world. He became in later life a pioneer of industrialised agriculture in England and a successful racehorse owner. He was step-great-grandfather to David Cameron, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
context_section_description: In 1912/13 Watson sold much of his remaining shareholding to Lever (Lever Brothers Ltd., later Unilever) and sold to him the remainder in July 1917, but remained as chairman. He had sold his half share in the Planter's Margarine Co Ltd. to Lever in July 1915, a joint venture established in November 1914 at Godley in Cheshire with Levers, in response to Government anxiety at the wartime loss of Dutch supplies, which by 1915 was the country's second largest margarine manufacturer. He had supplied it from his Olympia Oil & Cake Co. Ltd. at Selby, Yorks which operated the largest linseed oil crushing and refining plant in Europe. It also hardened whale oil and in 1917 during WWI was allocated by the government 21% (later 25%) of British whale oil for hardening. Watson then suffered substantial losses in an unsuccessful speculation in linseed and he sold Olympia Oil & Cake to the Dutch firm Jurgens, which had outbid Levers.
caption: "Soapy Joe's Shaft", Whitehall Rd. Leeds. A surviving ventilation shaft of the former Leeds Electricity Dept., which sub-station stood adjacent on the north to Whitehall Soap Works
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