Carreras Cigarette Factory

Carreras Factory
The black cats on guard in front of the building
Alternative names	Arcadia Works Greater London House The Black Cat Factory
General information
Type	Former cigrarette factory converted for office use
Architectural style	Art Deco Egyptian Revival
Location	Mornington Crescent, Camden Town
Address	Greater London House, 180 Hampstead road, London NW1 7AW
Town or city	London
Country	England, UK
Coordinates	Coordinates: 51°32′01″N 0°08′23″W / 51.5335°N 0.1398°W / 51.5335; -0.1398
Current tenants	British Heart Foundation, Young & Rubicam advertising agency, ASOS.com, Wunderman, WPP, Radley & Co and others
Construction started	1926
Completed	1928
Renovated	1996
Design and construction
Architect	M.E Collins, O.H Collins & A.G Porri
Renovating team
Renovating firm	Finch Forman
Awards and prizes	Civic Trust Award

The Carreras Cigarette Factory is a large art deco building in Camden, London in the United Kingdom. It is noted as a striking example of early 20th Century Egyptian Revival architecture. The building was erected in 1926-28 by the Carreras Tobacco Company owned by the Russian-Jewish inventor and philanthropist Bernhard Baron on the communal garden area of Mornington Crescent, to a design by architects M.E and O.H Collins and A.G Porri. It is 550 feet (168 metres) long, and is mainly white,

The building's distinctive Egyptian-style ornamentation originally included a solar disc to the Sun-god Ra, two gigantic effigies of black cats flanking the entrance and colourful painted details. When the factory was converted into offices in 1961 the Egyptian detailing was lost, but it was restored during a renovation in the late 1990s and replicas of the cats were placed outside the entrance.

As demand for cigarettes increased during the First World War, the Carreras Tobacco Company expanded its business in the 1920s, like many other tobacco companies. Carreras had outgrown its Arcadia cigarette factory in City Road, London, so it closed the facility and opened a new Arcadia Works in 1928 in Mornington Crescent, Camden.

The architects of the Camden Arcadia Works were Marcus Evelyn Collins and O.H. Collins, along with Arthur George Porri (1877-1962) who adapted the Collins plans. The design was greatly influenced by the contemporary fashion for Egyptian-style buildings and decorative arts. The Carreras building was designed four years after Howard Carter's 1922 expedition which uncovered the tomb of Tutankhamun, which had popularised Egyptian themes in the minds of many Art Deco architects at the time. The vogue for Egyptian Art Deco was also aroused by architectural displays at the Paris Exhibition of 1925, as well as various spectacular Hollywood portrayals of Ancient Egypt. Collins, Collins and Porri additionally drew inspiration from the displays at the British Museum. Commentators on the architecture have also speculated that the use of Egyptian decoration was used to create an association of the "luxury" image of smoking with the treasures of Ancient Egypt.