Cadby Hall
Cadby Hall was a major office and factory complex in Hammersmith, London which was the headquarters of pioneering catering company Joseph Lyons and Co. for almost a century.
The name originated from Charles Cadby, piano manufacturer, who purchased 8.5 acres (34,000 m2) of land along the High Road (today named Hammersmith Road) in 1874. The location had formerly been known as the Croften Estate. Cadby allocated 1.5 acres (6,100 m2) on the site for his new piano factory and showrooms while the remaining 7 acres (28,000 m2) were set aside for smaller building plots.
Cadby Hall itself was designed by Lewis Henry Isaacs and constructed using Portland stone and red Fareham bricks, with terracotta panelling above the first floor windows, and carved portraits of famous composers. Reliefs on the sides of the entrance doorway depicted scenes celebrating music and poetry. Cadby called the building the Cadby & Company Pianoforte Manufactory.
The arrangement of buildings in the complex was designed primarily to prevent the spread of fire by confining it to one building should such an incident occur.
Cadby lived for a time in what is now known as Keats House, previously owned by the poet John Keats in Hampstead. When Cadby died on 22 October 1884, the factory and all stock were sold, and subsequently a variety of businesses occupied the site between 1886 and 1893, including Kensington Co-operative Stores and the Schweppes Mineral Water Works.
By 1899, the fledgling J. Lyons company had purchased property near Cadby Hall at No. 62 Hammersmith Road, and when they subsequently took over the Hall complex itself they retained the name, although the official address of the Cadby Hall complex became 66 Hammersmith Road. In time it became one of the largest food factories in the United Kingdom, growing to cover an area of more than 13 acres (53,000 m2).
As the Lyons catering business expanded, the factory complex grew outwards from the central point of the original Cadby Hall, spreading in all directions but chiefly east and west along the Hammersmith Road, with new blocks being added as new areas of production were launched, including tea, baked goods, meat and ice cream. As part of this expansion, the company purchased the St Mary's College campus that adjoined Cadby Hall in 1922 and began using the land and property when the college moved to Strawberry Hill in 1925.
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