Historical Memorial in Hatton Garden

Abstract

AN interesting memorial, the institution of which was organized by Mr. E. Kilburn Scott, was unveiled at St. Andrew's Parochial School, Hatton Garden, on July 25, by the Mayor of Holborn. Much mechanical pioneering started in the district. An early connexion with engineering was in 1804, when Richard Trevi-thick erected his first steam-carriage in Felton's workshop in Leather Lane. Scientific instrument making began about 1750, when the Italian, F. Pastorelli, began to make thermometers, barometers, etc., the business he founded being still carried on at No. 46. In 1850 Negretti and Zambra joined in similar work, and when the Holborn Viaduct was built, removed to the present site of the Gatehouse, in which Sir Christopher Hatton resided. In 1817, P. Norton Johnson refined platinum and other rare metals in the building No. 79, where similar work is still carried on by the firm he founded. The district has long been famous for watch- and clock-making, and the name of Lund, who made chronometers at No. 4 in 1836, is still well known. St. Geo. Lane-Fox, a pioneer in the making of electric incandescent lamps, was at No. 75 in 1881, and the lamp factory at Hammersmith, built by the Brush Electrical Company to make his lamps in 1888, was eventually taken over by the General Electric Co., Ltd.