A HISTORY OF SURREY 



The manufacture of looking-glasses in con- 

 junction with other kinds of glass-making 

 was probably well established in Southwark 

 and Lambeth during the eighteenth century, 

 but at present we lack authoritative evidence 

 to enable us to gauge the extent of the indus- 

 try with any precision. An instance of a 

 Southwark looking-glass maker occurs towards 

 the end of the century in Thomas Aldersey 

 of St. Olave's, who in 1771 took out a patent 

 for a machine for grinding and polishing plate 

 glass.' 



But the most important glassworks in 

 Southwark and for long in the county itself 

 was the Falcon Glasshouse in Holland Street, 

 Blackfriars. The firm of Apsley Pellatt & 

 Co., by whom and by whose predecessors these 

 works were carried on in this locality for 

 nearly one hundred and twenty years, claims to 

 have been established in 1759. The works 

 were situated where originally stood Widflete 

 mill, the tide mill of the old manor of Paris 

 Garden, and were devoted to the making of 

 flint glass. A glasshouse a little to the west 

 of the millpond, which had not then been 

 drained, is shown on an old map of 1746. On 

 the same map, it may here be noted, is marked 

 another glasshouse, apparently of some con- 

 siderable extent, in Narrow Wall at the ex- 

 treme north-west corner of the parish or 

 Christ Church where it adjoins Lambeth 

 parish. Of this latter establishment Allen, in 

 his History of Lambeth, remarks * ' that there 

 was a glasshouse in this neighbourhood is well 

 known, though the exact site is not ascer- 

 tained.' 



The Falcon glasshouse became the property 

 of Mr. Apsley Pellatt, and it was mainly 

 under his direction that it earned its reputa- 

 tion for the excellence of its productions in 

 the nineteenth century. Some particulars of 

 the works about the year 1850, given in 

 Brayley and Britton's History of Surrey^ are 

 of interest and may be here quoted : — 



The number of persons employed is from one 

 hundred to one hundred and twenty in the glass- 

 house and about thirty elsewhere. The weight 

 of glass manu&ctured in the course of a year, 

 into chandeliers, illuminators for ships or cellars 

 toilet and smelling bottles, ornamental glasses of 

 every description for the uble and various objects 

 for medical and philosophical purposes has been 

 200,000 lb. Since the repeal of the excise duty 

 on glass the quantity is already increased a fifth 

 and the quality improved. The materials em- 

 ployed here are fifty tons of sand, twent^--five tons 

 of alkali, twenty-five tons of red lead and one 



' Dep. Keefe/'s Rep. vi. App. i6i. 



' p. 307- 



» Vol. V. App. 34-7. 



hundred tons of broken glass. Thii weight of 

 glass is about a fortieth part of the flint glass 

 manufactured in England, but its value is in a 

 much higher proportion from the superior delicacy 

 of many of the productions. 



An account then follows of the processes em- 

 ployed. Seven crucibles made on the premises 

 of Stourbridge clay, each capable of melting 

 at once 1,600 lb. of glass, were in use for 

 fusing the materials which had been previously 

 prepared. The durability of the glass when 

 made was obtained by a skilful process of an- 

 nealing. This was performed in a long oven 

 through which a railway extended. Upon 

 this railway were placed iron trays containing 

 the glassware. These were gradually shifted 

 from the mouth of the oven to its centre 

 where it was hottest, and then as gradually 

 shifted to the farthest end where the heat was 

 less violent. Some of the articles required 

 three days, others but twelve hours to be 

 properly annealed. 



The firm of Apsley Pellatt & Co. still 

 flourishes as glass and china manufacturers to 

 the king, and holds other important appoint- 

 ments. But the Falcon glassworks were re- 

 moved from Blackfriars about the year 1877 

 to Pomeroy Street in the Old Kent Road, 

 where they were continued until about 1895. 



Another glass-making firm mentioned in 

 Brayley and Britton's account of the manu- 

 factures of Surrey in 1850 as one of the prin- 

 cipal at that time in the county is that of 

 Messrs. Christy & Co., at Palace New Road, 

 Lambeth. No particulars are given of the 

 output of this firm or of the quality and 

 nature of its productions. The works seem 

 to have been discontinued in the following 

 year, 1851, as after that date the name of 

 the firm does not appear in the London 

 Directory. 



The manufacture of glass, although no 

 longer an important Surrey industry, is still 

 carried on by a few firms in the London dis- 

 tricts on the south side of the Thames. The 

 firms devoted to the making of window glass 

 in this quarter number close upon a dozen, 

 several of them combining with this manu- 

 facture the business of lead and colour mer- 

 chants. Thus Messrs. Britten & Gilson in 

 Union Street and Ewer Street, Southwark, 

 are makers of sheet, crown, plate and orna- 

 mental window glass, glass benders, embossers 

 and grinders, and in addition lead, oil, colour 

 and varnish merchants. They succeeded 

 about the year 1864 the firm of Attwood and 

 Smith, who were established as window glass 

 manufacturers in Blackfriars in the early years 

 of the nineteenth century. Messrs. Richard 

 Morris & Sons of Chester Street, Kennington, 



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