British Arkady
An industrial site used for researching and testing bakery products, visited with @b3n
History
Arkady refers to the product being produced there which acted as a mineral yeast food, dough improver and water conditioner. Although there isn't a much information on the site its self, the company has be very well documented. In 1921 British Arkady began to be manufactured yeast in Willesden, London. The company then moved Old Trafford, Manchester in 1925. These original buildings housed factory, offices, laboratory and test bakery facilities for the marketing of a single product, Arkady. In 1929 business increasing and led to a doubling in size of these premises, by1955 The company extended its bakery expertise to complete mixes for institutional and industrial canteens. 1967 rolled around and British Arkady acquired a substantial interest in the Tweedy group, famous for its high-speed mixer developed for the Chorleywood Bread Process. From 1972 to 1996 British Arkady became part of Archer Daniel Midland for the USA expands its markets across the UK and Ireland and into 21 other countries with a broader range of products including bread mixes, cake, pudding and pastry mixes. The company was supposedly still operating at the site up until 2000, however this source has no evidence to back it up. As mentioned previously, there i very little on the site and so i don't know when i closed down. The company and product still live on but renamed and acting under ADM but still operating at different sites around the UK. Confusingly, the site is named as CSM Bakery Solutions on google maps. The image below was taken in 1938, when compared with present day you can see how a lot of the new building are built directly on top of the older foundations.
References
https://britainfromabove.org.uk/image/epw057384
(Aerial Photograph)
http://www.bphs.net/groupfacilities/b/BritishArcady.htm
(General History)
https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/British_Arkady_Co
(Further History)
https://www.ulprospector.com/en/eu/Food/Detail/882/343949/Arkady-Dough-Improver
(Product Information)
The Explore
Summary
Despite all of the fencing and closed windows, access is pretty standard gymnastics and a little will power; Once in the main buildings there is nothing stopping you from spending the whole day there. Whole range of things to look at like the lab, bakery machinery and offices. About 75% of the site is surrounded by a live factory but it's not difficult to work out which bits are rotting and which bits have security. Spent a fair time in there just wandering around, and left without fuss.
Full Account
Away from the main road and surrounded by very few houses, the site was viable during the day. While looking for a way in we saw Mr Hi-Vis but this turnout to be for the live site rather that our intended location. After getting past the fences it was a bit of gymnastics to get inside but it was a fairly straightforward and didn't take to much guess work. After walking up the first set of stairs we were met by a sign saying "Laboratory Only" which was a nice bit of instant gratification. Opening the door and there it was, all moulding and completely trashed but a lab nonetheless. Despite the level of destruction it seems like everything was just left there once the placed closed down, so there was still a fair amount of things that hadn't been smashed or ruined. I'm sure it would have been amazing to have been the first in there but as a newbie to exploring, its still the best lab I've walked around.
Following on from that, there was the canteen which yelled British industry and a few bits left of the kitchen. then moved on to some of the offices which weren't hugely exciting apart from what I assume were the management offices. These has a fair amount of paperwork as well as the old computers along with a whole host of random crap that had been dumped there. We then moved on the more factory oriented areas which had some interesting lumps of machinery, all connected and stretching between multiple floors. After many a photo of that stuff, we found the our way in to the warehouse which were mostly empty, well apart from all standard carpet of pigeon shit.
After we'd finished looking around the warehouses we called it a day and made our way out.
Photos
An industrial site used for researching and testing bakery products, visited with @b3n
History
Arkady refers to the product being produced there which acted as a mineral yeast food, dough improver and water conditioner. Although there isn't a much information on the site its self, the company has be very well documented. In 1921 British Arkady began to be manufactured yeast in Willesden, London. The company then moved Old Trafford, Manchester in 1925. These original buildings housed factory, offices, laboratory and test bakery facilities for the marketing of a single product, Arkady. In 1929 business increasing and led to a doubling in size of these premises, by1955 The company extended its bakery expertise to complete mixes for institutional and industrial canteens. 1967 rolled around and British Arkady acquired a substantial interest in the Tweedy group, famous for its high-speed mixer developed for the Chorleywood Bread Process. From 1972 to 1996 British Arkady became part of Archer Daniel Midland for the USA expands its markets across the UK and Ireland and into 21 other countries with a broader range of products including bread mixes, cake, pudding and pastry mixes. The company was supposedly still operating at the site up until 2000, however this source has no evidence to back it up. As mentioned previously, there i very little on the site and so i don't know when i closed down. The company and product still live on but renamed and acting under ADM but still operating at different sites around the UK. Confusingly, the site is named as CSM Bakery Solutions on google maps. The image below was taken in 1938, when compared with present day you can see how a lot of the new building are built directly on top of the older foundations.
References
https://britainfromabove.org.uk/image/epw057384
(Aerial Photograph)
http://www.bphs.net/groupfacilities/b/BritishArcady.htm
(General History)
https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/British_Arkady_Co
(Further History)
https://www.ulprospector.com/en/eu/Food/Detail/882/343949/Arkady-Dough-Improver
(Product Information)
The Explore
Summary
Despite all of the fencing and closed windows, access is pretty standard gymnastics and a little will power; Once in the main buildings there is nothing stopping you from spending the whole day there. Whole range of things to look at like the lab, bakery machinery and offices. About 75% of the site is surrounded by a live factory but it's not difficult to work out which bits are rotting and which bits have security. Spent a fair time in there just wandering around, and left without fuss.
Full Account
Away from the main road and surrounded by very few houses, the site was viable during the day. While looking for a way in we saw Mr Hi-Vis but this turnout to be for the live site rather that our intended location. After getting past the fences it was a bit of gymnastics to get inside but it was a fairly straightforward and didn't take to much guess work. After walking up the first set of stairs we were met by a sign saying "Laboratory Only" which was a nice bit of instant gratification. Opening the door and there it was, all moulding and completely trashed but a lab nonetheless. Despite the level of destruction it seems like everything was just left there once the placed closed down, so there was still a fair amount of things that hadn't been smashed or ruined. I'm sure it would have been amazing to have been the first in there but as a newbie to exploring, its still the best lab I've walked around.
Following on from that, there was the canteen which yelled British industry and a few bits left of the kitchen. then moved on to some of the offices which weren't hugely exciting apart from what I assume were the management offices. These has a fair amount of paperwork as well as the old computers along with a whole host of random crap that had been dumped there. We then moved on the more factory oriented areas which had some interesting lumps of machinery, all connected and stretching between multiple floors. After many a photo of that stuff, we found the our way in to the warehouse which were mostly empty, well apart from all standard carpet of pigeon shit.
After we'd finished looking around the warehouses we called it a day and made our way out.
Photos
