T’was about time I got round to ticking this one off. Having parked the bike in Tesco next door and grabbed a Costa coffee to go, I strolled round to the entrance and made my way in. The main building suffered a fairly major fire in March 2013 and is a typically trashed graffist’s playground. It’s probably most notable for the works of Guido van Helten, an Australian street artist hailing from Brisbane.
History
This old factory in Sidcup was built in 1937 to the designs of Wallis Gilbert and partners for Klinger Ltd. Richard Klinger was an Austrian engineer who developed the compressed fibre gasket. This building was designed in the latest Modern style of architecture. It had water tanks at the top of the central tower. There was a second floor company flat intended for visiting Austrian executives, offices on the first floor, cutting shop and tool room on the ground floor and storage for rubber, asbestos, chemicals and consumable items in the basement.
The building was later awarded Grade II listed status before the Klinger company sold out to the French firm Trouvey Cauvin. In doing so it made 40 of its 47 workforce redundant before eventually closing down completely. Since 2000 Tesco and Ikea have both pulled out of plans to build on the site which remains derelict.
As always, thanks for looking.
History
This old factory in Sidcup was built in 1937 to the designs of Wallis Gilbert and partners for Klinger Ltd. Richard Klinger was an Austrian engineer who developed the compressed fibre gasket. This building was designed in the latest Modern style of architecture. It had water tanks at the top of the central tower. There was a second floor company flat intended for visiting Austrian executives, offices on the first floor, cutting shop and tool room on the ground floor and storage for rubber, asbestos, chemicals and consumable items in the basement.
The building was later awarded Grade II listed status before the Klinger company sold out to the French firm Trouvey Cauvin. In doing so it made 40 of its 47 workforce redundant before eventually closing down completely. Since 2000 Tesco and Ikea have both pulled out of plans to build on the site which remains derelict.
As always, thanks for looking.
