I wasn't sure what to expect from British Cellophane but it is an absolutly amazing place, Three seperate Cellophane Factory's with a rail handeling complex on one side and an impressive Headquaters building and laboritory on the other the site really is big, and every thing about it is big. The first factory floor we entered had machines four stories tall with access points at every level i honestly have no idea how cellophane is produced but the scale of the machines involved is overwhelming it's hard to work out where to start photographing them.
The Factory originally opened in 1937 and throughout the factory there are tell tale signs of its age, The toilets on the factory floors have hardly changed going in to them is like steping back in time. One of the main factory floor has a fantastic wooden conveyor belt running its entire length and although some of the machines have been removed enough remains to show what a busy place it must once have been. and glazed brick work is emerging from the peeling paint.
Travelling through the factory it is obvoius parts of it have been closed for a very long time you get a real feeling of how this must once have been a really big concern back when British Industry was at its peek, but bit by bit the operation got smaller and smaller, British Cellophane Ltd was originally part of the Coulthards group but when Coulthards split its operations in the early 90's BCL was sold off to the Swiss UCB Group which lead to the closure of the head office building and laboritories both a real time warp original art deco features with 70's decor although they were stripped i loved the offices. And the payment windows on the wage office were bloddy amazing the corridor out side was so thick with cobwebs i think we must have been the first people to inside it for 20 years. It's been a really hard job to pick out the pics for this report i took hundreds during the 6.5 hours we were in there today. It has to be one of the best industrial sites to visit but i'd make it quick there were scrappers on site today pulling down one of the buildings and we had an interesting time watching them from the cover of a nearby stairwell.