Back in the early 1980s, I used regularly to take the short train ride from New Cross Gate to London Bridge. On this brief inner-city commute my train passed all kinds of factories churning out products from foods to light engineering goods. Paper bags, biscuits, malt vinegar, and flags were all being made near that busy railway line. Most of these industries have since vanished from the area and many former inner-London factories are now given over to apartments or shops.
Walking across central London the other day with the Carreras building (see previous blog entry) still in my mind, it occurred to me how many of these inner-London industries there used to be. I passed some of their former buildings in Soho, including this old hat factory in Hollen Street. A fairly ordinary building of the 1880s is enlivened with this lovely lettering. It’s as if the maker of the letter forms put in just that bit of extra effort into the design, just as the hatters inside wanted us to know that they would take similar pains with a homburg or a trilby. It’s good to see such care lavished on a relatively modest building in an obscure side street.
6 comments:
This reminds me Philip, where was that big butterfly advertising Samuel Jones stationery products? Camberwell?
Yes, Camberwell – it being a Camberwell beauty butterfly.
Some factories made a bigger impact on their environment than others. Emma's grandmother recalled the all-pervasive stench of vinegar from the Crosse and Blackwell pickle factory in Soho Square, which she used to travel through in an open-topped horse-drawn omnibus on her way to North London Collegiate School. This would have been in the first decade of the 20th century, so we're talking about the original factory at 20-21 Soho Square, not the current building on the same site, which was erected in 1924. Soho Square is of course now full of publishers and music, advertising and film industry executives, not pickle-makers.
It turns out I was wrong about Emma's grandmother being on her way to North London Collegiate; this was just while she was a pupil there, and going into town.
Hi there - I used to work in the Hat Factory in the 90s. It was, of course, the production office for a commercials company. We were on the top floor and the lift was very cranky. Great building to work in.
Mariatis: Thank you for your comment. I walked past this building again the other day and was pleased to see the lettering still in good condition. The generous windows must have made it a light, pleasant place to work in.
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