Royal Army Clothing Factory Pimlico

[FionaBam]

The factory has been mentioned in several threads on the forum but it may be helpful to have an article copied in here which I am advised by @FROGSMILE is of good quality, plus some information from an article on DavidsHistory , some photos and links.

The text below  is copied from a  post on a Facebook Group "Another Brick in the Wall : Pimlico ", as are the first 2 photos  ,  and  so copywright with thanks to David Hodgson Aug 2020

"Another rare find from the local history of Pimlico. This large 19th century soup bowl is from the Royal Army Clothing Department, Pimlico, and was found this morning in the Thames mud. Sadly this item is not complete but still a rare piece from this company which is now long gone and was replaced by the 1935-37 development of Dolphin Square gardens.

History :

In 1855 the War Office took responsibility for provision of Army clothing; previously, each individual regiment had been responsible for procuring its uniforms. A storage depot was established, initially within the Ordnance Depot at Weedon in Northamptonshire before being relocated to Pimlico in 1859. In 1856 a factory had been built at Woolwich to manufacture uniforms for the Artillery and Engineer corps.

In 1863 a factory was established in Pimlico (a 70-year lease having been purchased on the site in Grosvenor Road); by the end of the decade the Woolwich factory had closed, with its operations having transferred to Pimlico. From 1870 the establishment at Pimlico (with its departments responsible for storage, manufacture and inspection of army clothing) combined with the Clothing Branch of the War Office to form a new Army Clothing Department (titled the Royal Army Clothing Department from 1887).

With its lease coming to an end, the factory at Pimlico closed in 1932, when new systems of clothing procurement for the Army were put into effect. Storage provision was moved from Pimlico to the Ordnance Depots at Didcot and Woolwich, and the following year, the Royal Army Clothing Department was abolished.

Dolphin Square now stands on the site in Grosvenor Road.

The following extracts were first published in the Navy & Army Illustrated on the 28th January 1899:

"Every material used in clothing our soldiers is of the very best quality. It has often been remarked that a deserter never has any difficulty in exchanging his boots, shirt, and other articles of clothing that are not actually distinctive parts of his uniform, the reason being that they are of so much better quality than those he gets in return. The greatest care is taken in the selection of material, and endless pains are bestowed upon the making of the garments. Vast quantities of foot and head gear are bought ready-made, £233,000 a year being paid for boots and leggings, £50,000 for head gear, and £27,000 for other articles bought ready-made.

But by far the greater part of the “goodly garb” a British soldier wears “ starts into shape and being” from the shears in the Royal Army Clothing Department at Pimlico. From this unpretentious-looking block of buildings every yard of cloth used in the British Army is issued. "The buildings cover more than seven acres of ground, and consist of four solid sections, three being given over to packing and storing materials and made-up garments, and the other being divided into the inspection department and the factory where the garments are made.

Once a year , tenders are issued for the supply of fresh materials, and contractors come to the Clothing Department to examine the patterns of stuffs required. The pattern-room is a large apartment, where a sample of every article of dress and toilet used by a British soldier is kept. All goods sent in by contractors are tested carefully, to see that they are in every detail according to the sample. For instance, the cloth sent in is stretched until it breaks, the breaking strain in pounds being registered on a dial. The dye is also subjected to a test, a sample of the cloth being boiled three or four times over, to see whether the colour is according to contract. After these ordeals the cloth is passed over two horizontal rollers, and examined by experts who look for holes and flaws.

Having passed this test satisfactorily, the cloth is folded, and every quarter of a yard is stamped with the Government broad arrow, and with the number of the person through whose hands it passes, who is responsible for the bale. "The quantity of cloth and serge issued in a year amounts to 3,600,000-yds. Think what this means. If the cloth were laid down in the roadway it would more than reach from London to Manchester. The quantity of cotton material used in a year comes to about 1,500,000-yds. Of silk and thread it is calculated that 40,000 miles are drawn through the cloth in a year, which is practically 130 miles a day.

The material used in the Royal Army Clothing Department costs £485,000 a year, and the annual wages of the Department average about £64,000."

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link to an excellent article posted on the forum by @FROGSMILE in  April 2013   . http://davidshistory...ng-factory.html

It has a great deal of detail regards the background history of the factory in Pimlico, the relevant legislation at the time that the factory was found later to have followed and enacted to high standards. Here is a snippet :

"In 1864, the Second Report of the Commissioners, of the Children’s Employment Conditions reported on conditions at the Army Clothing Factory. It was a generally favourable report. The Inspector, Mr H W Lord commented that:

“Every facility was afforded me for visiting and obtaining information as to the practical working of this excellent institution; the arrangements adopted to secure the comfort and health of the workpeople seemed to have been very successful.”

The factory at Pimlico was described as consisting of a very large and lofty hall, with an arched roof of glass, and having two galleries, an upper and a lower one, round its four sides. Mr Lord was conducted on a tour of the facility by Captain Taylor, who had moved to Pimlico already having gained considerable experience at the government manufactory. On the occasion of Lord’s visit there were present 724 women, 5 were absent from sickness, and 25 from other causes, in most cases from their having to go to receive pensions or half-pay on that day: so large a number of absentees was considered as being exceedingly rare.

Very few of them were under 18 years of age, the youngest of all was 14, she and some three or four from that age to 16 made up trimmings.

It is found that they must be first rate sewers, before they are taught the use of the machine, in order that they may understand, whether the work brought to their machine is properly prepared for it.

In the department which made the Chacos  women were also employed, although it was really a kind of saddlers' or cobblers' work, and had previously been considered man's work ; but the men in that branch had proved so disreputable and disorderly, that Captain Taylor determined to try what women could do, and the result has been most successful. They made some 2,000 chacos a week.

The bulk of the work was carried on in the centre of the hall; where there were 58 machines, each having 8 persons, besides the machinist, preparing or finishing the garments. At the time of the inspection nothing but great coats were being made, at the rate of 4,000 a week. In the previous January 28,578 new tunics, great-coats, jackets, and trousers were made on the premises.

All the sewing machines on the ground floor were moved by steam power, communicated by straps from horizontal shafting; the shafts pass along the floor, and are securely boxed; there was at first a difficulty in regulating the speed, but that is managed by a small wheel, which tightens or slackens the straps as required, and is applied by the pressure of the foot of the machinist on a pedal.

Nearly 450 persons were still directly employed out of doors; the names in the book of one viewer are 200, and in the other 230; some of these have one or two members of their family to help them, so that perhaps a thousand were employed altogether,

The hours were from 7.30 A.m. to 6.15 P.m., with an hour for dinner from 11.45 to 12.45; all the women left the premises for that meal; on rainy days 20 or 30 of those who live at any distance usually ask and are allowed to stay, the rest manage to go with one of those who live near. They had about 15 minutes for tea, which was taken on the premises; they paid Id. to an eating-house keeper, who is allowed the use of a room and range for preparing tea...

Interestingly, Captain Taylor remarked that it would no doubt be much easier to give out material for 100 garments to a responsible piece-master, and look only to him to have them returned properly made ; however,  he thought that "the workpeople are "much more ready to serve us now that we employ "them directly. They happen to be working hard "to-day, because it is the last day of our week; they "will get through as much to-day as they will all "to-morrow and the next day."

Captain Taylor was also confident that there was a wonderful difference observable in the improved physical condition of the people, after they had been working for a month or two at the Depot, and that the example set them there, contributed much to raise the tone of the whole neighbourhood. "

and the Conclusion

 

"So in a period of some 20 years from when Mayhew had written, the provision of Army Clothing had changed beyond recognition. After a false start at Weedon, a centralised Government department now controlled both procurement and manufacture; the private profits of the Colonels had been removed; the costs of providing Army Clothing to the Public purse had been reduced and seemingly the conditions of the workers had been improved.

The Army Clothing Depot at Pimlico closed in 1933 and was demolished. It has now been replaced by the prestigious residential complex of Dolphin Square which still stands overlooking the River Thames in Pimlico."

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https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/724798133753818876/

 

should take you to a Pinterest Newspaper article entitled "  The Clothing of Tommy  "   and  exterior and interior photos of the factory which I have copied below. The second interior photo is from IWM  website so copywright  to them.

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Maps from   " A History of Dolphin Square" by K.F.Morris published by the Dolphin Square Trust in 1995. The RACF was built on what had been " Cubitt's Yard."

 My personal interest is that I lived as a small child in Dolphin Square  and so here is a photo of it from that era. Credit Getty Images. 

FYI : close by in the  mid 19th  was the  Royal Small Arms Manufactory - see other  threads on Forum

 

 

Edited 28 December , 2023 by FionaBam
Wrong word !

[Muerrisch]

I am happy to own a complete, page by page, copy of the RACD ledger, incredible detail, from 1875 to 1915 [exact years from memory]. It comprises ove 20 gigabytes of photographs of the mss pages, indexed.

One day, somebody [certainly not me] will transcribe every page!

[FionaBam]

7 hours ago, Muerrisch said:

complete, page by page, copy of the RACD ledger, incredible detail, from 1875 to 1915

Good heavens! How marvellous! What a piece of history!  If the current management of  Dolphin Square were in a better position they could well have been interested in doing something to exhibit the ledger within the Square to showcase the history of the site and the RACDepot  illustrating the  connections between the Factory , a pioneer  at the time of decent working conditions for local women  and the expression in architecture of social living- in 'a- community design of Dolphin Square.

For me my new book just arrived- fact based novel about the American Sam Colt who in 1853  set up his small arms factory a stones throw away from where the RACDepot  was soon to arise  in the middle of the " Devil's Acre "slums to beat all slums that stretched from Pimlico to the newly built Houses of Parliament .

Wanna make a movie ?!☺️

Edited 28 December , 2023 by FionaBam
Error

[FROGSMILE]

On 28/12/2023 at 12:11, FionaBam said:

Good heavens! How marvellous! What a piece of history!  If the current management of  Dolphin Square were in a better position they could well have been interested in doing something to exhibit the ledger within the Square to showcase the history of the site and the RACDepot  illustrating the  connections between the Factory , a pioneer  at the time of decent working conditions for local women  and the expression in architecture of social living- in 'a- community design of Dolphin Square.

For me my new book just arrived- fact based novel about the American Sam Colt who in 1853  set up his small arms factory a stones throw away from where the RACDepot  was soon to arise  in the middle of the " Devil's Acre "slums to beat all slums that stretched from Pimlico to the newly built Houses of Parliament .

Wanna make a movie ?!☺️

Here’s a fine photo of the RACD factory with some soldiers standing out front.  The factory also acted as a school for the soldier tailors who were certificated there before taking up their appointments as master tailors for their units.

Given the range of headdress and thus regiments, the soldiers in the photo are probably tailors undergoing their training and certification, the sergeant at far left is from the Coldstream Guards.

The fellow stood at front on the road alongside some civilians is I think probably an ASC member of the instructional staff.  He wears a blue serge patrol frock with scalloped flaps to his breast pockets.  Everyone else is in drab khaki service dress. 

Edited 24 January by FROGSMILE

[FionaBam]

3 hours ago, FROGSMILE said:

who were certificated there before taking up their appointments as master tailors for their units.  

It is indeed a fine photograph Frogsmile and how well - planned to train up tailors at the RACD  factory. Being a tailor is a very skilled job.

Wonder if that's the tailors graduation day photo. 

[FROGSMILE]

5 minutes ago, FionaBam said:

It is indeed a fine photograph Frogsmile and how well - planned to train up tailors at the RACD  factory. Being a tailor is a very skilled job.

Wonder if that's the tailors graduation day photo. 

Yes there must be a reason for the photo, but graduation type photos tended to involve at least one row seated, so this looks too informal.

Interestingly the street doesn’t seem to be tarmaced unless it’s just the liberal coating of horse manure that tended to build up over time.

Edited 24 January by FROGSMILE

[FionaBam]

Post-grad  group selfie photo😎

Reading a novel set in that area a decade prior to RACD opening it was  a pretty industrial and impoverished area despite the very attractive depot building,  so untarmacced most likely  I would say .

[FionaBam]

This map from " The Devil's Acre" by Matthew Plampin copyright to Harper  2010 is undated . The book is set in 1850s Pimlico so 10 years before the 1864 Government Inspection report about RACD was published. 

I was surprised to see the quite extensive Grosvenor Canal west of RACD site . Pre- Victoria Train station and Victoria Street so it was hard for me to get my bearings looking at it.

[FROGSMILE]

2 minutes ago, FionaBam said:

This map from " The Devil's Acre" by Matthew Plampin copyright to Harper  2010 is undated . The book is set in 1850s Pimlico so 10 years before the 1864 Government Inspection report about RACD was published. 

I was surprised to see the quite extensive Grosvenor Canal west of RACD site . Pre- Victoria Train station and Victoria Street so it was hard for me to get my bearings looking at it.

It’s disorienting when so much has been built subsequently.