Howards & Sons chemical factory, Uphall Road: About 1960s

Howards & Sons chemical factory, Uphall Road: About 1960s

Howards chemical factory, Uphall Road, about 1960s

Redbridge Heritage Centre p7181

In 1898, Howards & Sons bought part of the Uphall Farm estate and built a factory on Uphall Road, at the south-western part of Ilford Lane. Howards had been founded in 1797 and were based in Stratford. They made chemicals for foods, fertilisers, medicines, paint, and many other products. The Ilford factory closed in 1980 after many complaints about pollution.

In this photograph, the Howards factory chimney is in the centre. Uphall Road can be seen on the right, leading to Uphall School in the top right corner.

Dave Watt was one of 400 who worked at Howards from the 1920s to the 1970s:

“Howards was one of the first companies in the country to introduce holidays, sick pay, pensions. I mean, it wasn’t a lot. The pension was laughable, but in those days it wasn’t laughable…
Everything that Howards wanted to do was first class. Carpenters, fitters, pipe fitters, plumbers. Every trade you can mention, they had their own.”