J & E Hall

J & E Hall is an English manufacturer of refrigeration equipment (today part of the Daikin group). It was originally established as an iron works in Dartford, Kent in 1785, with products including papermaking machines, steam engines and gun carriages, before it started producing refrigeration machinery in the 1880s. During the early 20th century, the company diversified to produce commercial vehicles (branded as Hallford, 1906-1926), lifts and escalators, before refocusing on its core refrigeration and air conditioning products in the late 1960s. The company retains a head office and some R&D facilities in Dartford.

The company was originally established in 1785 in Lowfield Street, Dartford by smith and millwright John Hall (1764-1836). Originally from Alton, Hampshire, the second son of a millwright who had previously worked in Dartford, Hall moved to Dartford in 1784, and was employed to repair a mill on the River Darent in Hawley, after which he set up his own business, repairing and maintaining machinery used in corn, paper, oil and powder mills in and around Dartford.

Bryan Donkin was one of the firm's earliest apprentices. Around 1800, the firm moved to larger premises in Waterside (now Hythe Street) on land which had once formed part of Dartford Priory, where its association with Donkin, now involved in the area's papermaking industry, helped it expand in partnership with the Fourdrinier brothers and John Gamble, to make paper machines. Donkin, Hall and Gamble also collaborated on canning food in metal containers. Hall acquired Peter Durand's patent in 1812 and after various experiments, Donkin, Hall and Gamble set up a canning factory in Blue Anchor Lane in Bermondsey, the first cannery to use tinned iron containers. By late spring 1813 they were appointing agents on the south coast to sell the preserved food to outbound ships, and the British Admiralty placed large orders with the firm of Donkin, Hall and Gamble for tinned meat. The firm later merged into Crosse & Blackwells.

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