Afraid this is a bit of a 'what could have been' report in some ways. Triplex is pretty local to me, probably about a mile away but at the same time not the kind of place you go passed every day (unless you take the train regularly which i certainly don't). I clocked on to it fairly soon after moving to the area in 2010. It was a live factory but had some areas that were clearly unloved and in places looked downright derelict. In those days derelict parts of live factories were not exactly top of the list. There were plenty of far more pressing, easier or less dodgy things to get up to so it just got chalked up on the 'yeh we should look at that one day' board.
When @clebby moved to the area in 2014/15 we started looking a bit harder at knocking stuff off said board. Still it took until 2017 for us to get around it.. (Well maybe that was clebby to get around to it! I had been patiently waiting for the right time we were both free and he just went and did with someone else... ;( ) Still we followed the next day and what we saw was bloody excellent. We manged several buildings mainly consisting of old stores areas all dripping in all the right old stuff and discarded tat. It was a bit of a seat of the pants explore which involved worker dodging and blatant CCTV 'not even bothering to dodge' but it came off fine and i went home happy if not slightly frustrated i couldn't have any of the epic stuff we had seen!
In the years that followed i came up with a couple of different plans to return for another look and maybe check out a few more bits we had not been able to access but none of these really came good. (mainly because i didn't put enough effort in must be said! Theres always tomorrow when it comes to the place next door.. ) Roll round to 2021, a few weeks ago in fact, there was an article in the press about a listing bid for the very 70s brutalist office block being refused. The article stated that there were plans to demolish it but mentioned nothing about the wider site. I wrongly assumed this was just Pilkington (the modern day custodians of the triplex empire) having a long overdue tidy up of the site and chalked it back up on the 'yeh we should have a look at that one day' board.. Well fail! what i hadn't realised is at some point over the last year or so Pilks had fucked off the Triplex branch of the company completely and the reason the tower was being demolished was because they were demolishing the whole lot!
After 6 weeks of procrastinating i eventually went and had a check on it this weekend. Fail! The epic old bit we had done before had totally gone. Ok we saw it but i certainly wouldn't have minded another poke in there. Whats more annoying is most of the other 30s era parts of the factory had gone too. I guess theres one school of thought that these more recently used parts might not have been so good, then again theres another that those parts made up the bulk of the manufacturing process and it if we could have caught it early theres a good chance we could have had a pretty epic historic manufacturing plant to see. Still we are where we are. We headed in and managed to see just about everything that was left. The remains of the main works had a few decent bits left. The tower whilst a cracking piece of brutalism was predictably bland inside but we got in there at least i guess..
Il split this one into two halves. First the photos from 2017. Second those from 2021. Its also probably prudent to detail a bit of the history of the place. As the title suggests they made safety glass. Originally just laminated glass but later (once a large scale manufacturing process was invented) toughened too! The company originated in 1912 when they bought the rights to make laminated glass from the French. Initially they had two factories, One in St Helens (the home of British glass making) and a second in Willsden. The Kings Norton plant opened a little later in 1927. The actual glass was supplied from Pilkington and in 1929 the two companies created a joint venture with Pilks eventually taking the controlling share. Initially a lot of the production was for aircraft screens but with the rise of the motorcar automotive became their biggest market. In 1930 XXX glass became standard on Austin cars and the Kings Norton factory would become the main supplier to the Longbridge plant until it shut in 2005. The Willsden plant had been disposed of in the 50s but St Helens lased until 2006. The Triplex brand had been discontinued in 1993 but the Kings Norton plant continued to produce glass from the likes of Jaguar and Bentley until 2019. At some point the aerospace part of the company was sold to GKN and they appear to still have some sort of presence although its a little unclear exactly whats going on. The site is destined to become an 'innovation hub' or some other such bullshit.
RIP the legacy of yet another proper old skool British manufacturer.
When @clebby moved to the area in 2014/15 we started looking a bit harder at knocking stuff off said board. Still it took until 2017 for us to get around it.. (Well maybe that was clebby to get around to it! I had been patiently waiting for the right time we were both free and he just went and did with someone else... ;( ) Still we followed the next day and what we saw was bloody excellent. We manged several buildings mainly consisting of old stores areas all dripping in all the right old stuff and discarded tat. It was a bit of a seat of the pants explore which involved worker dodging and blatant CCTV 'not even bothering to dodge' but it came off fine and i went home happy if not slightly frustrated i couldn't have any of the epic stuff we had seen!
In the years that followed i came up with a couple of different plans to return for another look and maybe check out a few more bits we had not been able to access but none of these really came good. (mainly because i didn't put enough effort in must be said! Theres always tomorrow when it comes to the place next door.. ) Roll round to 2021, a few weeks ago in fact, there was an article in the press about a listing bid for the very 70s brutalist office block being refused. The article stated that there were plans to demolish it but mentioned nothing about the wider site. I wrongly assumed this was just Pilkington (the modern day custodians of the triplex empire) having a long overdue tidy up of the site and chalked it back up on the 'yeh we should have a look at that one day' board.. Well fail! what i hadn't realised is at some point over the last year or so Pilks had fucked off the Triplex branch of the company completely and the reason the tower was being demolished was because they were demolishing the whole lot!
After 6 weeks of procrastinating i eventually went and had a check on it this weekend. Fail! The epic old bit we had done before had totally gone. Ok we saw it but i certainly wouldn't have minded another poke in there. Whats more annoying is most of the other 30s era parts of the factory had gone too. I guess theres one school of thought that these more recently used parts might not have been so good, then again theres another that those parts made up the bulk of the manufacturing process and it if we could have caught it early theres a good chance we could have had a pretty epic historic manufacturing plant to see. Still we are where we are. We headed in and managed to see just about everything that was left. The remains of the main works had a few decent bits left. The tower whilst a cracking piece of brutalism was predictably bland inside but we got in there at least i guess..
Il split this one into two halves. First the photos from 2017. Second those from 2021. Its also probably prudent to detail a bit of the history of the place. As the title suggests they made safety glass. Originally just laminated glass but later (once a large scale manufacturing process was invented) toughened too! The company originated in 1912 when they bought the rights to make laminated glass from the French. Initially they had two factories, One in St Helens (the home of British glass making) and a second in Willsden. The Kings Norton plant opened a little later in 1927. The actual glass was supplied from Pilkington and in 1929 the two companies created a joint venture with Pilks eventually taking the controlling share. Initially a lot of the production was for aircraft screens but with the rise of the motorcar automotive became their biggest market. In 1930 XXX glass became standard on Austin cars and the Kings Norton factory would become the main supplier to the Longbridge plant until it shut in 2005. The Willsden plant had been disposed of in the 50s but St Helens lased until 2006. The Triplex brand had been discontinued in 1993 but the Kings Norton plant continued to produce glass from the likes of Jaguar and Bentley until 2019. At some point the aerospace part of the company was sold to GKN and they appear to still have some sort of presence although its a little unclear exactly whats going on. The site is destined to become an 'innovation hub' or some other such bullshit.
RIP the legacy of yet another proper old skool British manufacturer.
2017
Stores, Tat and Definitely No Smoking!!
Stores, Tat and Definitely No Smoking!!
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