Last week I did a brief article on the history
of G.A.Harvey whose Greenwich Metal Works was in the Woolwich Road – and I need
to carry on with a bit more of their
story.
Somewhere in my chaotic bookshelves is a book
published by Harvey’s which is basically a sort of catalogue of holes - and
I’ve always said about Harvey’s that what they seem to have made is – well - holes! The book was amazing page after page,
after page, with rows and rows and rows of all the different shapes and sizes
in which you could have your holes, should you want them, The book was a production of what was probably
their most famous section - the Perforation Department.
In my article last week I said that I would
try and to write next about some of the stuff which Harvey’s made – and its
going to be a long, long list. So, what did they actually do? Well, obviously,
perforated metal, was one of them. Last
week I quoted a long article by Keith Clarke about working at Harvey’s – and he
in it describes some of his father’s career through the company. Bob Clarke
had, after London University and stints in the Great War as an army lieutenant,
joined Harvey’s as a draughtsman. He was eventually promoted to be Manager of
the Perforation Department. Too valuable an employee to be called up in the
Second World War he began a ‘Local Defence Volunteers’ section for the factory. By the 1950s he was said to be the leading expert in metal
perforating in the UK’.
But back to the start of Harveys. As I said
last week they began in what is described as a ‘shed’ on Loampit Hill. They grew
extensively there making items like gutters and tanks for local builders,
specialising in work in zinc. In 1894 they took on Norway Wharf (which they
called ‘Iron Wharf’) on the Greenwich Riverside near Wood Wharf for galvanizing
and tank making. The firm then had about 100 employees.
An advertisement from 1903 when they were
still based in Lewisham headlines the word ‘galvanise’ and says that they are
working zinc, copper and aluminium - ‘Trade
zinc workers’ … ‘indoor and out’ … ‘copper roofing’. There is a picture of the inside of the Lewisham
works on a Lewisham Council website (https://boroughphotos.org/lewisham/g-a-harvey-co-the-old-zinc-shop-at-lewisham-interior-showing-men-at-work-3/). Dating from 1907 it
shows ‘the old zinc shop’ as a long narrow room with benches and machinery at
the sides and an aisle down the centre. Workers are looking at plans, beating
some circular object with a hammer, using a machine, hammering and right at the
end is somebody who looks as if he’s dressed in office clothes. The other workers have caps on their heads
apart from one man with a bowler hat – and I assume that means he is someone in
a supervisory position. There are
various objects all over the place and right at the end is a fretwork outline
of a cockerel.
Another advertisement from their initial works
dated 1911 shows a stack of metal tanks with ‘tanks … cylinders … cisterns’ written
above plus ‘tank cylinder systems … large stocks …well tested .. well-made … and
any size made to order in a few hours’.
By 1913 they had moved to Woolwich Road where the
workforce was soon 2,500. By 1913 they
were advertising themselves as ‘metal perforators .. wire weavers … metal
spinners …zinc and copper workers’. It is interesting to note that their ‘telegraphic
address’ is ‘cheaper char London.’
In 1916, despite the war, they advertised themselves
as producing perforated metals for ‘home and export’ … ‘juice screens for sugar
refineries’ … ‘zinc riddle plates for agricultural purposes’. In 1918 they
claim to be the ‘largest perforating works in the Kingdom’. In 1920 they have clearly
realised the future of the motor car and advertised .. ‘petrol tanks .. dashboards
.. motor bonnets’. There is also the first sign of the shelving and lockers which
would become a major part of their output. They also advertise ‘perforated metals for
ships cabins’. As the k1920s continued
they began to advertise chimney cowls and ‘smoky chimney killers’. These became
a constant in a wide variety of designs – most like a series of the heads of
medieval armoured knights. They also
began to use ‘Harco’ as a trade name as well acquiring an address of an office
in the City of London.
In the 1920s they begun to advertise some rather
more fancy perforation work with a gusard to disguise a radiator which they said
was designed ‘to the order of the Cunard Steamship Company for the RMS
Aquitania … fitted with a marble top and finished in oxidised silver’. Ten years later they advertised decorative pipe
covers’ and ‘ventilator panels’. So, whatever equipment you had in your office
or home which you thought was ugly could be hidden behind any one of large
numbers of artistic designs in brass, copper or bronze. This highly decorative trend
was continue and thirty years later they were talking about producing perforated
metals ‘From gravel screens to the Sheik’s ceiling. This was apparently “Anodized Aluminium for Sheikh's Palace
…. Over 1200 perforated aluminium ceiling panels have recently been manufactured at the Greenwich
Works of G. A. Harvey &
Co. ( London ) Ltd. for the new Sief Palace in Kuwait”.
In the 1920s they also began to make enormous
amounts of office equipment. This was the sort of stuff which I think was ubiquitous
in most of the offices I worked it in during the 1960s and 1970s and I guess it
would last forever. I seem to remember it being dark green or grey and shelving, filing cabinets and tables all
looking much the same. Most of it is
probably still there.
In the 1960s I worked in Dorset House in
Stamford Street where even the rooms were partitioned between the various magazine offices in the
same green metal sheeting looking just like the shelves and bookcases. One of
my colleagues there was a young woman whose husband worked at Harveys. I still lived in Gravesend then and I used to
listen to her accounts of company dances with some envy (and eat the cakes her mother
in law produced in a local cake decorating class). I can’t even remember her name – but maybe
she will read this note about her life as Mr.Prince’s Secretary, over 50 years
ago and surrounded by dark green metal furniture.
By the 1930s Harvey’s were advertising, along
with everything else …. ‘cylindrical tanks …hot water cylinders …. square
dustbins … sanitary dustbins ….. smoke extraction equipment .. watering
cans … wheel barrows’ most of it under
the Harco trade name.
In the Second World War they were still advertising
their perforated screens and woven wire work.
Of course they were also doing other things and I came quite accidentally
across a description of war work which illustrates the capacity and versatility
of which this works was capable. The wartime army were nervous about tanks that
might sink in mud or hit hidden explosives – particularly when landing on a
beach or foreshore. 79th
Armoured Divison’s techies had designed a sort of plough which would create
furrows which could throw any mines clear of the tank’s path. It needed to be manufactured fast. On 18th
May a personal letter from Montgomery went to the Harvey’s Managing Director
and by 29th May twenty four ploughs had been delivered to the Army.
I
am aware that much of what we find in the advertisements is all very routine
stuff – except possibly for the Sheik’s ceiling. Clearly at the same time Harveys were
undertaking some very major works and its not easy to find out about them. If I had more copies of the Harvey magazine
(I have just six copies and it was monthly for many years) I might know
more. There are some hints. In an obituary to one of their staff I find
that he designed and oversaw production of wind tunnels for De Havilland and
for Rolls Royce as well as pressure vessels and fractionating towers for the oil industry. Another obituary describes work for GEC.
I
am almost at my limit for words on this article and I still have a lot to say
about Harvey’s so perhaps I will have to
have a part 3! In the meantime get onto
Youtube and have a look at a short film ‘Dodging the Column’ if you haven’t see it already. You won’t be disappointed! Note the man up the bustop in Woolwich Road
with his hammer (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpGgxiY89HU&t=7s). More about that next
week
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