Klinger factory - Sidcup

United Kingdom / England / Halstead /
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Klinger is an Austrian manufacturer for valves and borosilicate gauge glasses. In 1936, they expanded their production facilities to England and opened this factory in Sidcup. This factory was built in 1937 to the designs of Wallis Gilbert and partners for Richard Klinger Ltd. The Klinger company was founded in Austria in 1893 and made gaskets for engines and hydraulic pipelines and also water level gauges and valves. This building was built in the latest Modern style of architecture. The building originally had water tanks at the top of the central tower. There was a second floor company flat intended for visiting Austrian executives, offices on the first floor, cutting shop and tool room on the ground floor and storage for rubber, asbestos, chemicals and consumable items in the basement.

The building has been derelict for many years now and a planning application for an IKEA store has been withdrawn so it currently sits in limbo with palisade fencing around the perimeter. The majority of the building is in a serious state of decay and hasn't been helped by 2 fires from earlier in the year.
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Coordinates:   51°24'48"N   0°7'26"E

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  • In April 2016 Chancerygate has exchanged contracts with ikea property investments to purchase a development site in Sidcup. The seven-acre site includes a listed building that Chancerygate will be selling to a self-storage occupier. Chancerygate’s Jonathan Lee commented: “We have agreed a delayed completion to allow time to secure planning, work through demolition and adapt the listed building. Excluding the self-storage building, we will be speculatively developing 105,000 sq ft of warehouse and industrial units available to let or for purchase”. The listed building is the former Klinger factory (pictured) which was built in 1936 to a design by Wallis Gilbert & Partners who were responsible for a number of architecturally distinguished factory buildings of which the best known example is the Hoover Building in Ealing. The site will be complete early in 2017
This article was last modified 10 years ago