We went last night to a party in Spratt’s Mill, a surviving industrial complex on the Limehouse Cut which was converted long ago – in 1985 – into flats.   I had no idea what Spratt’s was.   The answer is dog biscuits and Spratt’s Works was, not so long ago, the largest dog biscuit factory in the world.   In the Boer War, it made ships’ biscuits for the troops and apparently also did a lively trade in pulses, dog shampoos and monkeys.   It was closed down in 1969 when purchase tax was introduced on dog food:-