The Warwick Trading Company had its origins in the London office of Maguire and Baucus, a firm run by two American businessmen who, from 1894, acted as agents marketing films and projectors produced by Thomas Edison.
[1] Urban was dissatisfied with the current location of the offices, in Broad Street, and proposed a move to a building in Warwick Court, which was nearer to like-minded businesses such as that of Robert W. Paul.
[4] At its peak, the Company either produced or distributed three-quarters of the films exhibited in Britain.
[5] Urban left the company in 1903, amid disagreements with Maguire and Baucus, and also with Alfred Jackaman Ellis, who had become the co-managing director in 1900.
[5][3] He set up another firm, the Charles Urban Trading Company, taking a number of key staff members with him, including well-known saleswoman Alice Rosenthal[6] and cameraman and assistant manager John Gilman Avery.