2-982-592 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Broadwood's Pianoforte Manufactory, Horseferry-road, Westminster, 1858. 'On entering the premises, the first thing which strikes one is the large area which they cover...The new range of workshops is on the left...on the right is the only remaining part of the old factory which escaped the fire. The new building is 303 feet 9 inches in length, by 46 feet in breadth. The large area within the walls is divided into thirty-two workshops, each 70 feet long by 21 feet wide, communication with which is obtained from without by a general entrance situated in the centre of the building, formed by a segmental headed archway...In this archway are the staircase and two lifts for the purpose of raising pianos and materials into the different workshops. Passing on we came to another yard, on one side of which is a shed covered with corrugated iron filled with dry timber from a wharf near Vauxhall-bridge, where the greater part of the valuable seasoned wood is kept, and the command of a large supply of which has been one of the main causes of the reputation which Messrs. Broadwood's pianos have attained'. From "Illustrated London News", 1858.