A narrow red brick alleyway leads to a heavy wooden door. Spider-webbed ivy grows over the lintel. Beyond, coat hooks, lockers, and empty wooden boxes remain.
2. Small Office
A sliding door from the cloakroom leads to a small office with punch cards and a time clock hanging slightly crooked on the wall. High ceilings seem disproportionate to these poky rooms.
“In here was a window with what felt like the last view outside. Didn’t pay to dawdle though, you had to get that punch card into the time clock before they docked you a quarter-hour pay”
3 & 4. Staff Quarters
From the office, a door leads to a large space containing decorative cornices and columns. It has been awkwardly partitioned into staff quarters: sink, hot water urn, and toilet remain.
5. Product Photography Studio
A walled-in spiral staircase leads to a product photography studio. Light-filled sash windows are blocked by a crude false wall built in front. From here, another door leads to a network of hallways.
6. South Corridor
Leads past a panorama of windows that look over a disused outdoor courtyard, a long-dead tree and a defunct fountain.
"It ran along the east side of the building, looking down onto a right-of-way that led from a small courtyard into Hereford Street. The heavy door at the end prominently displayed a brass nameplate."
7. Connecting Hall
"I walked through the doorway and was confronted by a flight of worn wooden stairs. Climbing these led to a shabby landing. It was all dusty floorboards with a worn-out jute mat that kept threatening to catch my heel and trip me up"
8. Portrait Studio Reception & Showroom
Floor-to-ceiling display windows face out to an interior atrium. Inside, visible outlines of long-gone prints create indelible shadows on empty display boards.
"You got to the studio through a hidden sliding door. Some clients found it a bit unsettling, especially women."
9. Quality Inspection Office
A narrow flight of stairs hidden behind a false wall leads to an office. A large window looks down on the reception and showroom.
"The closest toilet was via the office. I'd walk the long way to avoid being noticed."
10. Studio Entrance & Storeroom
A flimsy, folding door reveals a workers' toilet and sink. Tatty, faded backdrops and props from the portrait studio are still in here. There is a distinct lack of heating in these spaces, no radiators or fireplaces. The air is stagnant.
11. Portrait Photography Studio
Once opulent, black velvet drapes shroud the windows.
"I'd set up the backdrops, props, and lighting, and load the film into the 8x10" plate camera. When the client arrived, I'd position them against the backdrop. Then he'd arrive to press the button."
12, 13. Photofinishing Room & Darkroom
A door from the portrait studio leads into an area for trimming, mounting and retouching portraits. A small pile of yellowed off-cuts remains. Windows are blocked by large shelves, added sometime in the 1960s. The darkroom is empty but for a smattering of stains and a strong smell of chemicals.
14. Sanding Room
The room is dank. A few broken plaster ornaments remain on the shelves, and a chalky film still coats the windows. Here, moulds were cleaned for decorating.
"When the ornaments came out of the moulds, they were placed on slatted wooden shelves to dry. Then they were trimmed with pocketknives and sanded with fine sandpaper. My hands were always dry and cracked from the plaster, but my dress remained damp."
15. Painting Studio
Largely empty apart from a makeshift partition wall built in front of a bay window, presumably to create extra working wall space.
"The studio had a large gas heater on which stood a variety of small unpainted plaster ornaments. It filled the room with the mingled odours of damp plaster of Paris and gas fumes."
16. Boss's Office
Access to studios is via a small office with an intimidating desk positioned to face a large sash window, overlooking Worcester Street.
"I knocked on the door, not knowing what to expect. It was opened immediately by a tall, wavy haired blond woman wearing a green tweed suit and spectacles. "Yes?" Her face was stern without a trace of a smile."
17. Packing Room
"I spent little of my time in the studio with the other girls but if the boss came in, I was for it. The door would burst open, and she would rush in like a whirlwind, bringing in a staccato, unsettled atmosphere. She’d fix me with her cold blue eyes, "I want you in the packing room, now."
18. Display Hall
A plate glass window with thin draped curtains reveals glimpses of an old display booth. The rest of the hall is empty.
19. Empty foyer
Used to store rejects, particularly the larger plaster statues employed as props in the portrait studio. An odd space that may have once been three rooms, it has a much lower ceiling height than adjacent areas. Well-worn, emerald-green carpet dates renovations from around the 1970s.
20. Interior Courtyard
"For a while we'd take our breaks there, one of the few opportunities for fresh air. That was until it was decided it should be done up and used as a statuary to display our plasterwork for paying customers only."
21. Empty Workroom
Shelves contain a few old magazines and technical manuals. The tap drips loudly in the foreman's shower.
"We would hear the footsteps of lost clients, trying to navigate the maze-like succession of showrooms, unaware of us working hurriedly just behind the wall."
22. Foreman's Office
Spacious office with a leadlight skylight, full bathroom, fireplace. Views over the entire printing department, plus entrance to workers’ bathroom. French doors open onto a terrace.
23. Printery
Light is diffused, like a glass house, windows covered with watery white paint. An abrupt flight of steel steps leads to a narrow floor for the proofing team.
"Finally, a view out over the street! Then the foreman painted over the windows to stop us getting distracted."
24. Unknown Room
A wood veneer sliding door opens to a strange closet-like space containing more display windows. A divan with a broken foot idles in the corner. The use of this room is unclear.
25 & 26. Interior Decor Reception & Showroom
A shadowy mezzanine hides above the showroom.
"I was excited to hear that in 1981 we were to get an IBM. Then they put it in the mezzanine..."
27. Staff Room
"One of the other workers showed me the break room, a windowless cube with a single recliner and bar fridge full of drinks. I was informed dryly that they belonged to the boss. The slick, passive bottles were like a tempting threat."
28. Framers' Studio
Access to the attic studio is via a stiff folding door and two flights of rickety stairs. Windows are jammed shut and the airless room is stifling. The sliding door at the end is locked, a dead-end.
29. Empty Room
A flaking corkboard is positioned on the south wall. A pinned, bleached photo depicts a nondescript painting. A price has been stickered below, the amount no longer legible.
30 & 31. Darkrooms
Door shut. Pitch black, no drafts. The street is audible through concrete block walls.
32. Storage Room
Stairs lead to a storage room and an empty lift shaft, formerly used to transport heavy items between floors.
"You could sneak a smoke in there, as the smell would disappear up the shaft. Just had to make sure you didn’t fall in or get caught."
33, 34, 35 Screen Printing Workshop
Large concrete sinks for cleaning screens. Area for printing and racking. a door leads to the exposure room and a sliding door leads to the spray booths. Discarded screens indicate they produced in-house advertising for window displays.
36. Courtyard
A large sliding door leads to a walled courtyard with a dilapidated lean-to and an outside toilet.
37, 38. Public entrance & Reception
Grand concrete steps and glass double doors open into an atrium with a brass reception desk and display cases. A dark, slate false wall looms at the end.
"Clients were escorted in via a door behind the false wall. The door was forbidden for us, we could only leave the way we came when the clock allowed it."