The "knocker-upper" was a common sight in Britain, particularly in the northern mill towns, where people worked shift work, or near London's dock area where the shifts of dockworkers went according to the tide.
In 1931, Mary Smith (pictured below) charged each of her East London customers the sum of sixpence a week to wake them up. She did this by using a long bamboo stick and shooting a pea at the windows of the sleeping workers.
Knocker-uppers also used batons and canes to rouse the residents who lived on upper floors.
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| Mary Smith woke people up by shooting peas at their windows |
Knocker-uppers also used batons and canes to rouse the residents who lived on upper floors. Knocker-uppers were night owls who slept during the day and stayed up all night to be sure they woke up their customers on time for work.
To have a knocker-upper wake you up, you could do one of two things: put a note on your door saying when you wanted to be woken up, or reach out to the knocker-upper in person and let them know when to bang on your window. They rapped on your window once for a sequence of three or four bangs, then they went on their merry way.
They weren't like your mother or wife who would call you ten times to get up. Nope. You got one set of three or four raps for your sixpence and that was it.
Their time, after all, is money.
By the end of the 1930s, there were an estimated 1,000 jobs for Britain’s knocker-uppers and thousands of subscribers in need of their services.
But who woke up the knocker-uppers? Here's a tongue-twister from that time with the answer.
We had a knocker-up, and our knocker-up had a knocker-up
And our knocker-up's knocker-up didn't knock our knocker up
So if our knocker-up didn't knock us up
It's 'cos he's not up.
Source: Unusual Jobs of the 19th and 20th century