Philip Hamlyn Williams - my history of British Manufacturing

Wednesday, December 17, 2025

London region manufacturing overview

London was the first and largest urban area in the world and naturally attracted industries that would serve the needs of its ever growing population.

I write of the growth of London in the context of improvements in communication in How Britain Shaped the Manufacturing World (HBSTMW)

The image is of Shakespeare’s Globe theatre and I include it because it marks a beginning of London as an entrepreneurial city as I explain in this blog piece.

Inner London

Where it all began with trade. Wool and silk occupied many Londoners as did clock making and furniture. Follow this link to discover more.

East London

Docklands and the East End. Trade needed ships and London built many. Along with ships, London made armaments at Woolwich. Follow this link to discover more.

South London

Tanning by the Thames created a stink. Flour and beer nourished the population. Huguenots produced more fine silk. Follow this link to discover more. .

East London 19th and 20th century

With yet more trade the docks expanded. Furniture making spread with the influx of skilled Jewish makers. Industry gathered along the Thames. Read more in this link.

South London 19th and 20th century

A hive of cutting edge engineering with Maudslay. Pharmaceuticals, much loved toys and the Stanley knife. Read more in this link.

Inner London 19th and 20th century

Pianos but also many of the basic needs of life, but then the new Industries before they moved out to pastures new. Read more in this link.

North London

Manufacturing moved north from inner London and there a raft of different industries from electronics to aircraft, furniture and motor components. Read more in this link.

West London 19th and 20th century

American companies flocked to Western Avenue and the Great West Road. Our iconic aircraft were built in Kingston and then radar to spot their enemies. Read more in this link.

Friday, December 12, 2025

West London manufacturing history

The twenties and in some cases earlier saw the establishment of the new motor and electrical industries on the periphery of London and near to the river. Investment by foreign companies became more visible. The thirties in particular witnessed strong growth in manufacturing in London and its surroundings and I explore these and related population increases in an essay I wrote entitled Which urban areas did well in the interwar years and why. The companies employing the growing population were in the new industries.

Greenford and Northolt

London had an estimated 400,000 horses and the three parishes supplied hay and received in return the horse manure.The borough gained importance with the arrival of the Grand Junction canal and brickworks sent many thousands of bricks for the house building boom. The Paddington basin acted as distribution centre.

The beginning of factory production came with William Perkins aniline dye works where he produced purple, mauve and magenta which were much in demand. The business was succeeded by the Purex Lead company making paint and the Peerless Wire Fencing company. The Rockware Glass Syndicate was located by the canal and was joined by the British Bath Company and Lyons Tea. Sanderson produced fashionable wall paper including designs by William Morris. The Aladdin Factory made lights and heaters.

In the Second World War there was a vast Central Ordnance Depot handling armaments. It would play a key role in the invasion of northern France. I write about it in this link. In the First World War there had been a shell filling factory employing the latest techniques.

in 1947 Glaxo Laboratories, which had outgrown its parent company Joseph Nathan & Co, became a significant business in its own right. It had built a strong balance sheet with production facilities at Greenford but also Barnard Castle, Stratford and Aylesbury. It then built a factory for the production of penicillin at Ulverston near Morecombe.

By 1939 Lyons employed more than 42,000 people and made 3.5 million gallons of ice-cream a year. It supplied the forces, but it too maintained the morale of the nation as well as lending its management expertise to the Royal Ordnance Factories.

Brompton bicycles are made here

Brentford and the western approaches to London

Brentford had been an early industrial area benefitting from good communications. The Grand Union canal meets the Thames at Brentford and handled a huge amount of trade between the Midlands and London. So there were market gardens, tanners, soap works, brewers and distillers, jam makers, kilns and mills.

Much later, the Western approaches to London attracted inward investment including Hoover and Gillette, but also Firestone, Pyreen, Smiths Crisps, Alvis and Macleans at Brentford. The Firestone factory was considered the finest of the Art Deco buildings on the Great West Road. Western Avenue was also home to radio maker Ultra's art deco factory. The American car makers Packard had their vehicles assembled by Leonard Williams. Brentford Nylons was a late arrival in 1970 but closed six years later.

Chiswick was where John Thornycroft began his ship building business and built for the navy the first torpedo boat. He went on to manufacture steam and then petrol powered wagons. The shipbuilding business moved to Southampton and vehicles to Basingstoke.

Isleworth is home to the Unilever research laboratory for toiletries.

Hammersmith

Barbara Denny’s Hammersmith and Shepherds Bush Past reveals industries that were probably to be found in many of the outlying areas of London. To meet the demand for lighting before gas and electricity there were large candle factories. To feed a hungry population, there were rabbit sheds which provided a regular supply to Leadenhall Market. Textiles were made is so many places and there had to be dye houses. In Hammersmith there was A. McCullock and Sons. The building industry was of course huge. Hammersmith had had its brick works and George Wimpey founded his stone masons company in 1896. There were gas engineers, crucible manufacturers supplying the Royal Mint, chair makers and pharmacists.

Lyons, Salmon and Gluckstein's, bakery and restaurant chain, at Cadby Hall were aware of developments in the new world of computing. They struck up a positive relationship with Wilkes and Cambridge mathematicians working on early computers. However the needs of academics were not those of a business seeking to process a large number of small transactions. Lyons therefore went their own way and this resulted in the Lyons Electronic Office (LEO) which proved effective but once more in this story failed to convince much of the commercial market. LEO was later bought by English Electric from which it would join with ICL.

Hammersmith also had an industrial alcohol distillery run by the Distillers Company. de Havilland began in Fulham before moving out to Hendon. Mullard radio components were at Hammersmith where also Osram light bulbs were made. In 1920 GEC had the Robertson Lamp Works, Hammersmith and the Osram-GEC Lamp Works, Hammersmith.

Paddington

A village at one end of the New Road which led into the northern part of central London where the Euston Road is now. It was also the link between the Grand Junction canal and the Regent Canal which follows a semi-circle north of London Zoo through to the East End where it meets the Thames. Paddington was also the terminus for the Great Western Railway. It followed that a large canal basin was built to handle the huge volume of trade.

Clement-Talbot were at nearby Ladbroke Grove (later the Rootes revolutionary service depot, Ladbroke Hall - see the post image)

The iconic Abbey Road studio, part of EMI, was further into London near Baker Street. EMI was also at Hayes. Bush set up their first television factory in Shepherds Bush.

Southwest London

To the southwest of London, the famous Brooklands race track near Weybridge, became the home of Vickers Armstrong Aircraft. It was there that Barnes Wallis designed the Wellesley bomber and then the iconic Wellington. I write more of this in this link.

Kingston upon Thames became home to Sopwith Aviation before the First World War and played a large part in the war effort in the air and on land in both world wars. It was later home to their successor Hawker Siddeley. I write more in this link.

Motor manufacturers included AEC at Southall and AC Cars at Thames Ditton where Willans & Robinson had made steam engines. The Associated Equipment Co Ltd had been registered on 13 June 1912 and took over the already busy bus chassis manufacturing business from its then owner, The London General Omnibus Company Ltd. In 1914, LGOC suffered the same fate as other vehicle manufacturers and operators, when 1,185 of its buses were pressed into use and soon could be seen transporting troops in France and Belgium. AEC began producing on its own account in June 1916 ,and, by the end of the war, had supplied 5,200 heavy duty 3 ton vehicles using the Tyler engine. In the Second World War AEC turned its production in wartime to Matador and Marshall heavy trucks which were used, amongst other things, for transporting pipes for the construction of oil pipelines.

Addlestone became home to Plessey Radar after its takeover of Decca in the mid sixties. The marine radar part of the Decca was taken over by Racal and they had a manufacturing presence in New Maldon. New Malden is also home to BAE Systems visualisation, experimentation, and design

Wednesday, December 10, 2025

North London manufacturing history

As Inner London turned its attention more and more to finance and service industries, manufacturing moved north, much of it into the Lea Valley which, hitherto, had market gardens working hard to feed a growing population. There was also brick making to house that population.

Enfield

Manufacturing came to Enfield in 1809 in the form of the Grout and Bayliss factory for dyeing and finishing black crepe for mourning wear.

Enfield became home in 1816 in the wake of the Napoleonic wars to the Royal Small Arms Factory of which I wrote in How Britain Shaped the Manufacturing World and Ordnance and which Jim Lewis explores in detail in his London's Lea Valley - Britain's best kept secret. The factory has recently been restored to 'its former glory'. Lewis highlights the shortcomings in small arms manufacture and how the Factory first sought to impose quality standards on the many manufacturers. I found it both interesting and disappointing that the Board of Ordnance looked to American machine tool makes when the factory took on its own production. I write about London's machine tool companies in this blog piece. Graham Dalling in Enfield Past adds that Joseph Whiteworth had a hand in planning the factory. The development of the rifle was key and was witnessed in action in Africa as the European nations struggled for supremacy and which I discuss in my blog on the Scramble for Africa.

Brimsdown, Enfield was the former home of the Edison Swan Laboratory. Joseph Swan moved from Newcastle where he developed the incandescent lamp and joined with the American Thomas Edison in exploiting their invention at Ponders End in 1886. They manufactured under the Mazda brand. I write of Edison in this blog. Working with him, Ambrose Fleming invented the first thermionic valve, a diode, from which the development of wireless grew. Also in Brimsdown was Cosmos, valve manufacturers.

In 1890 Frederick Walton bought the former black crepe factory to exploit a French invention of flexible metal tubing which was met with high demand from the railway manufacturers with their need for steam pipes and airbrakes.

Enfield was where Cornishman, Charles Belling, in 1922 set up to manufacturer domestic appliances and he also worked with Edgar Lee to produce one of the first wireless sets using Edison valves. In the Second World War this company switched to radar components and VHF aerials. Their successors, Thorn Industries, were at Enfield as was their television manufacturing subsidiary, Ferguson. They later became part of Thorn EMI of which I wrote in Vehicles to Vaccines.

Warburton have their massive crumpet factory in Enfield

Edmonton was home to CAV, part of Lucas and to MK the manufacturer of electrical fittings set up by Charles Belling's business partner.

Ponders End was home to Wright's Flour Mill which dated back to the seventeenth century. Its story is interesting for it took good advantage of developments. It used the Lea Navigation and then steam road vehicles. It moved from stone milling to electrically driven roller mills. It now offers speciality flours.

Coca Cola built a plant in Edmonton in 1975

Walthamstow

Walthamstow was home to Britains Toys. In 1914, William Britain had developed a technique for the hollow-casting of toy figures, which leant itself perfectly to all manner of toy soldier. Phillips Records and Ever Ready batteries were also in Walthamstow. It was where the Associated Equipment Company (AEC) began manufacturing buses before the company moved to Southall.

In the First World War, Peter Hooker Ltd in Walthamstow developed a speciality for forging components from a new alloy of aluminium 'Y alloy' which had been used for the pistons of aircraft engines. The business collapsed with the failure of the airship programmes and was succeeded by High Duty Alloys in Slough run by their former employee Wallace Devereux. The company would have a fundamental impact on aero engine manufacturing.

The Royal Gunpowder Factory was at Waltham Abbey and closed in 1967. I write about the factory and its place alongside Woolwich Arsenal in Ordnance. Matchbox Cars were originally made in Chingford.

Hackney was the place where the first British plastics were manufactured. The material, Parkesine was invented by Alexander Parkes and then exploited by British Xylonite which later became know as Halex. It was a challenger to the American Celluloid. Clarino in Hackney had 2,000 making sweets. Marconi had a factory at Dalston. Also at Dalston was one of the two Siemens English Electric Lamp factories.

Tottenham

Tottenham was where John A. Prestwich set up (JAP) motor cycles employing 'the very latest of machinery'. Prestwich was a gifted inventor and his engine was used by Avro in the first flight of a British aircraft piloted by a Britton. Colin Chapman set up his Lotus company in Hornsey in 1952 before moving to Cheshunt in 1959. The fifties and sixties had seen the focus on motor racing with victories with Stirling Moss and Jim Clark at the wheel. Tottenham was also where Lebus manufactured furniture after moving from the East End. The Thermos Flask was manufactured in Tottenham. It was said that whenever there was a thousand bomber raid in the Second World War there would also be some 12,000 thermos flasks in the air at the same time. Much later Amstrad’s head office was at Brentwood House, Tottenham, although it had started life in Hackney. I write of Amstrad in Vehicles to Vaccines.

In 1906 David Gestetner moved the manufacture of his duplicating machines to Tottenham. He was Hungarian and had lived in the USA but moved to Britain in 1881 where he registered a patent for 'Improvements in Cyclostyle pens'. He developed his ideas and eventually became the largest manufacturers of duplicators in the world.

R.W. Munro was a precision engineer with a business in Bounds Green where in 1892 he made an anemometer which was used to measure wind speed for the next century. He also manufactured presses for the Bank of England. His successors were commissioned by IBM to make a replica of the Babbage Difference Engine which Babbage had conceived whilst at school in the Lea Valley.

Hendon

Moving west from the Lea Valley we come to Standard Telephones which were at Hendon and Jim Lewis offers some history. It was the American Western Electric that bought a 2.7 acre site in Southgate in 1922. This company then manufactured telephone equipment under license from the Bell Telephone Company. It was from a hut next to the factory that the first trans-Atlantic telephone call was made. Western Electric was bought by ITT and the Southgate company changed its name to STC and became one of the main suppliers to the GPO. Hendon was also where Geoffrey de Havilland designed his first aircraft for Airco in 1912. Geoffrey de Havilland founded the de Havilland Aircraft Company at Edgware on 25 September 1920 with financial assistance from his old boss at Airco.

Stanmore attracted many industries including GEC Research Laboratories and Solex Carburettors (my first job!). Wealdstone was where Winsor & Newton artists paints were made.

Islington

George Bassett founded a sweet factory in Islington in 1848 but expanded into the former Allsopp piano factory in Wood Green in 1880. The company expanded further making its famous Liquorice Allsorts amongst much more. It merged with Trebor to become Trebor-Bassett in 1966. I wrote of another Trebor merger in my piece on Maidstone. The Wonder Baking Company began making Wonderloaf in 1937. In 1936 the first television broadcast was made from the nearby Alexandra Palace.

In nearby Highbury, Stephen’s ink was produced

Finchley, Willesden, Acton and Cricklewood

Finchley was home to F.R. Simms who obtained the rights to build Daimler cars in England and I wrote about this in How Britain Shaped the manufacturing World. Simms went on to invent armour plating for Vickers and Maxim and the first powered lawn mower for Ransoms, Sims and Jeffries. In 1907 he took the rights to manufacture magnetos to Bosch design and from there set up the company that would later merge with CAV and become part of Lucas as I wrote in Vehicles to Vaccines.

Rotax manufactured in Willesden shifting their focus to aerospace. They moved to Hemel Hampstead and became part of Lucas Aerospace.

New Southgate was the place to which Robert Paul moved from Hatten Garden to partner Cambridge Instruments which made measuring instruments and was bought by Brown Boveri in 1974 and at its peak employed 750 people. Paul also exploited the invention of the kinetoscope which Edison had failed to patent in the UK. It made very short films of sporting events. Cambridge Instruments which had been founded in Cambridge had a distinguished history in advanced instrument making. Paul was also known as a film industry pioneer.

The North Circular Road attracted a good number of factories. Jack Olding supplied earth moving vehicles and during the Second World War prepared and modified tanks in their art deco factory known as 'tank central'.

Willesden and Cricklewood were home to Staples whose owner John Heal designed Ladderax furniture which also made mattresses at Staples Corner.

Hadley Page at Cricklewood produced in the Second World War, first the Hampden bomber and then the more successful Halifax which were manufactured by a production group comprising: English Electric, Rootes at Speake (Liverpool), and Fairey in Stockport. At peak production there were some 660 subcontractors and 51,000 employees completing a new aircraft every working hour, some 6,177 aircraft in all.

David Napier motor company was at Acton and had re-emerged near the beginning of the era of the motor car, as manufacturers of high quality vehicles. By 1914, they were making seven hundred cars a year from their Acton factory and selling from their New Burlington Street Showroom, including many to the London Taxi trade. David Napier & Son continued to develop aero-engines culminating in the Napier twenty-four cylinder Sabre, which, at 3,500 hp., powered the Hawker Typhoon and Tempest. The company was bought by English Electric in 1942. Famously Napier developed the Deltic diesel engine which was used in railway locomotives and other applications including electricity generation in remote places. The Deltic had originally been designed for naval use.

Lucas Diesels and CAV were also in Acton.

Thomas Wall made sausages and came up with the idea of making ice cream in the summer months when sausage sales dipped. The idea took off and production began at the Acton factory soon after the end of the First World War. The company became part of Unilever in 1922 and expanded by building a factory in Gloucester in 1959..

Nearby Neasden had NCR and British Oxygen. In Willesden, Rotax had a factory and Rolls-Royce acquired Park Ward and H.J. Mulliner coachbuilders. In the 1920s British Thomson Houston built a large engineering works in Neasden which was later closed when it became part of GEC contributing to the run down of manufacturing in that part of London. In 1928 F.W. Hall built his factory for making the telephone equipment for the iconic red telephone box (buttons A and B!)

Harlesden was home to McVitie's biscuits, which became part of United Biscuits, the formation of which I write about in Vehicles to Vaccines.

Decca's recording studios were in West Hampstead.

Wembley was home to GEC Research laboratories set up in 1923, and Johnson Matthey. Wembley had a Marconi components factory and Cricklewood had Smiths Industries.

Dollis Hill was home to the General Post Office Research Establishment and Tommy Flowers, a senior engineer of the General Post Office which then had the monopoly of telecommunications in the UK and probably the greatest concentrating of electronic engineering expertise. Flowers brought into reality the concept behind the Colossus which was the successor to the BOMBE which Alan Turing designed to crack the Enigma code.

Park Royal

In the First World War this area had a huge munitions factory. In the twenties the site was cleared and a huge industrial estate built. In the years of depression elsewhere, the estate bucked the trend with a steady stream of new tenants to replace those who left. Park Royal had the English home of the Guinness brewery. Heinz had a factory there but more so smaller companies in the new industries.