Ingersoll, Clerkenwell

Since the Ingersoll ghost sign disappeared, the only other trace left by this watchmaking company still visible in London is, as far as I'm aware, the mosaic on the top of its former factory in Clerkenwell.


The factory was built in the 1930s for property speculator Gilbert Waghorn. Before it was completed, Ingersoll agreed to move in. Thus the architect, Stanley Waghorn (the brother of Gilbert Waghorn, who designed several factories around Barking and Stratford) modified slightly the parapet on the St John Street façade to incorporate the green and off-white mosaic with the logo of Ingersoll.


Production of Ingersoll watches in Clerkenwell certainly stopped when the new factory of the Anglo-Celtic Watch Co. Ltd opened in Ystradgynlais, near Swansea, in 1948, or shortly afterwards. Ingersoll Ltd was one of the two shareholders of the Anglo-Celtic Watch Co., the other being Smiths Industries Ltd (Vickers Armstrong was originally part of it but withdrew in 1948).
In the 1950s, the Clerkenwell factory was bought by Condé Nast and became the pattern factory for fashion magazine Vogue. As a result, the building is now known as Pattern House rather than the Ingersoll building. In the mid-1990s, after 60 years of industrial use, it was converted into lofts.

Location: St John Street / Pictures taken in January 2012