The Spirella Company of Great Britain

I regularly go past this Grade 2 listed building. I keep meaning to get a photo, this is the first time. I think it deserves another visit, and I've got some ideas now having had a go once.

Spirella was a company which manufactured made-to-measure corsets. It was founded on a patent of dressbone for bustles but started corset manufacture in 1904. At its height it had factories in the USA (New Haven, Connecticut, Meadville, Pennsylvania), the UK (the Spirella Building in Letchworth) and Sweden (Malmö). Their flagship location was Spirella House on Oxford Circus.

This building was created between 1912 and 1920 Its founder, William Wallace Kincaid, (1868 - 1964) an American entrepreneur, came to Letchworth Garden City after hearing about the establishment of a new community - the world's first Garden City - and the man behind it, Ebenezer Howard (1850 - 1928).

Kincaid commissioned architect Cecil Hignett to design a state-of-the art factory of great beauty. The factory was completed in 1920.

There is more history - the war years etc. That will have to wait for the next blip (I can't remember where the research is).