PCMI (Portsmouth Craft & Manufacturing Industry) Signs was primarily a signage manufacturer holding major contracts with Portsmouth City Council among others, and undertook work for local businesses, schools, and pretty much every other sector you could think of. They had been at their manufacturing site in the Cosham area of Portsmouth since the mid-1990s, and created all sorts of signs including magnetic, engraved, digital banners, posters, vehicle & window graphics packaging labels, stickers, health & safety signs, vinyl, screen printing as well as more traditional aluminium and plastic street signs etc. The site closed in 2018, and in April this year approval was given for demolition and the planned brand new fire station and training headquarters to be built on the land.
This was one of those very unusual occurences when I could combine exploring with work. A few days prior to the visit, a post had gone out on Facebook Marketplace from a city council representative advertising a clearance and selling off of everything inside the old factory, so naturally our interest was thoroughly piqued and we arranged to come down on the day the clearance was happening as scores like this don't come along too often. We arrived nice and early and parked up on site, before being let loose inside the factory to gather up anything we wanted. To say it turned into a manic morning was a bit of an understatement, as before long there were maybe another ten or so people all dismantling stuff and carting the larger pieces of machinery away - stuff we weren't really interested in as it wouldn't have fit in the estate car! Whilst having the run of the factory I made sure to take photos of the place, as that sort of thing is second nature to me and I knew after a couple of days the entire place would be emptied so it was worth it to have some kind of record, even if they were only phone photos.
We came away with an extremely heavily loaded car full of things, it was the first really big major score for my work and a crazy morning I still remember fondly!
Below is what we came away with - that was a fun slow journey back from Portsmouth to Newbury!
Thanks for looking
This was one of those very unusual occurences when I could combine exploring with work. A few days prior to the visit, a post had gone out on Facebook Marketplace from a city council representative advertising a clearance and selling off of everything inside the old factory, so naturally our interest was thoroughly piqued and we arranged to come down on the day the clearance was happening as scores like this don't come along too often. We arrived nice and early and parked up on site, before being let loose inside the factory to gather up anything we wanted. To say it turned into a manic morning was a bit of an understatement, as before long there were maybe another ten or so people all dismantling stuff and carting the larger pieces of machinery away - stuff we weren't really interested in as it wouldn't have fit in the estate car! Whilst having the run of the factory I made sure to take photos of the place, as that sort of thing is second nature to me and I knew after a couple of days the entire place would be emptied so it was worth it to have some kind of record, even if they were only phone photos.
We came away with an extremely heavily loaded car full of things, it was the first really big major score for my work and a crazy morning I still remember fondly!
Below is what we came away with - that was a fun slow journey back from Portsmouth to Newbury!
Thanks for looking
