2-982-593 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Broadwood's Pianoforte Manufactory, Horseferry-road, Westminster, 1858. 'Near to [the] depository is the department for preparing glue, an item of expenditure which amounts to £2000 a year. The steam for the coppers in which the glue is boiled is supplied from the engine and boiler house, which, with a saw mill and shed, a room for drilling and turning by steam power, and a foreman's room for matching veneers, &c., complete the subsidiary range of buildings which may be seen on the left-hand side...To give some idea of the extent of this edifice, it may be added that it contains upwards of 200 large windows, and when fully lighted up with gas presents a very striking appearance...fourteen out of thirty-two workshops are occupied entirely by the manufacture of grand pianos...we understand that Messrs. Broadwood probably manufactured one half of the grand pianos annually supplied in the United Kingdom...The time required to complete a grand piano is generally from six to eight months...Between the new building and the wing of the old one is the veneer-vault, in which a large collection of very valuable veneers is kept. Upwards of 200,000 feet of rosewood veneers are used in the course of the year'. From "Illustrated London News", 1858.