The House Of Ilford

In the past three years, film sales have been on the rise, says Tracy Calder, making it the perfect time to visit Harman Technology – home of Ilford Photo

- Tracy Calder

In 1879, Alfred Harman began manufacturing gelatino-bromide ‘dry’ plates from the basement of his house in Ilford, Essex. He chose this location for two main reasons: its proximity to London and its clean, dust-free environment. At first he had five staff, but his wife and housekeeper often assisted him.

In time, Harman changed the name of his house from Langsett to The Britannia Works. Henceforth, the plates his team produced were known as Britannia Plates (later Ilford Dry Plates). ‘The formation of his business was one of the essential actions that took photography from amateur hands and set it securely on the way to becoming a significant, highly skilled, professional industry,’ suggests Michael R Peres in his book The Focal Encyclopedia of Photography.

Great believer in innovation By 1886, Harman was running a thriving plate-manufacturing factory called the Britannia Works Company. He was a great believer in innovation, and a man of high standards, so it came as no surprise that, in 1889, he hired a quality supervisor to ensure that every plate was as close to perfection as possible.

Just over a decade later, the company changed its name to Ilford Ltd, and Harman stepped away from the day-to-day running of the factory (although he remained a member of the board for some years). He died in 1913, aged 72.

The company Harman established has gone through many changes over the past century, but some of the greatest have taken place in recent years. Like all silver-halide photographic companies, Ilford Imaging UK Ltd suffered from the arrival, and rapid popularity, of digital photography. Consequently, in 2004 it filed for insolvency (the Swiss-based arm, which focused more on digital products, remained in profit).