S.W.H units : Shoreditch, White City and Southwark : Crittall Windows : Catalogue No. 163 : Crittall Manufacturing Co. Ltd. : Braintree, Essex : 1953

            In 1953, for the first time since 1922, Crittall Manufacturing issued a general catalogue and description of their works, processes and products. It is a glorious volume, at 22 pages, and was designed for them by John Lewis and printed at the noted works of W. S. Cowell in Norwich. In many ways it echoes the fine contemporary catalogues of their rivals, Henry Hope's of Smethwick, with whom they would eventually merge in 1965 bringing together their expertise and markets in windows and associated building ironmongery. Crittall's had their origins in the Essex town of Braintree in 1849 and began to manufacture windows in 1884. They jointly purchased the important German Fenestra patent in 1907 and the following year became established in the US market. After WW1 the company began to manufacture "standard" metal windows, to standardised dimensions as as house building increased, along with a more streamlined aesthetic that favoured minimal steel windows in the 1930s, the company expanded. By 1953 they had manufacturing plants in Braintree, Witham, Maldon, Silver End, Paisley and Colwick as well as works in Darlington. They also had overseas plants in Auckland, Dublin, Dunedin, Düsseldorf, Johannesburg, Melbourne, Port Elizabeth, Salisbury, Toronto and Waukesha.

The catalogue is lavishly illustrated with examples of their products installed since WW2 across a variety of buildings including housing, commercial and industrial structures both in the UK and abroad. Despite various claims for steel framed windows, notably that they did not warp like timber frames nor, if works treated and zinc plated they required less painting, the windows did have drawbacks; most notably in the form of issues around heat loss and condensation and very few 'originals' are now to be found. Later generations of steel framed windows, still manufactured by Crittall, are effectively double glazed units and have overcome many of the original failings.

This page shows three of the post-war estates undertaken by the London County Council, a major builder of social housing across the then County of London and so building alongside the various Metropolitan Boroughs that also existed. At the time, the LCC's housing schemes had fallen under the Department of Housing & Valuation and so, architecturally, they were often redolent of pre-War schemes; that would begin to change when the Architects Department re-established control over housing design in 1951 and more contemporary schemes began to be designed. 

The estates are; Shoreditch, by Victor Wilkins, architect, White City Estate by Cyril H. Walker, Director of Housing & Valuation, and Mermaid Court on the Tabard Gardens Estate in Southwark, by H. V. Ashley & Winton Newman, architects.

Taken on: July 26, 2024

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trade catalogue

catalogue

manufacturing

steel windows

windows

metalwork

Crittall Manufacturing Company Limited

Braintree

Essex

Crittall Windows

Crittall Windows Catalogue Number 163

1953

architecture

industrial architecture Mike Ashworth Collection

London

London County Council

Shoreditch

Victor Wilkins

architect

White City Estate

Cyril H. Walker

Director of Housing & Valuation

Mermaid Court

Tabard Gardens Estate

Southwark

H. V. Ashley & Winton Newman

architects

Crittall S.M.W. windows

Whiston Estate

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