Whitechapel Bell Foundry
The last premises at 32–34 Whitechapel Road, backing on to Plumbers Row, dates from 1670 and was formerly a coaching inn called "The Artichoke" which had been damaged in the Great Fire of London.
[9] The Artichoke ceased trading in 1738 and the following year the Whitechapel Bell Foundry moved into the premises.
The business had to adapt throughout the centuries and in modern times, with new churches being built less frequently, produced handbells and doorbells.
It responded to a surge in orders for table bells, following the popularity of the ITV period drama Downton Abbey, with a third of its sales going overseas.
[12] In 2013 the foundry launched an online shop selling house bells, musical instruments and personalised merchandise.
The foundry was particularly busy after the war, replacing bells lost or damaged by fire in bombing raids across London.
[3] In March 2017 a consortium of heritage groups, including Save Britain's Heritage, the East End Preservation Society, the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, the Ancient Monuments Society and the Royal Academy of Arts attempted to have the foundry's Grade II*[2] premises re-listed as a Grade I listed building as an asset of community value to preserve the historical importance of the building within the wider east end community.
In 1752 the foundry (known at the time as Lester and Pack)[34] cast the Liberty Bell, which was commissioned to celebrate the 50th anniversary of William Penn's 1701 Charter of Privileges, Pennsylvania's original constitution.
A profile template of Big Ben surrounds the entrance door of the Whitechapel Foundry, while the original moulding gauge is retained near the furnaces.
The foundry's bellfounder at that time, Albert Hughes, is commemorated in a stained glass window in the nave.
[46] In Canada, the towers of Notre-Dame Basilica in Montreal house one of the world's largest bells and a ten-bell carillon.
[48] The Old Post Office in Washington, D.C., USA, has a ring of 10 bells in the key of D (tenor 26 cwt) that were cast by the Whitechapel Foundry in 1976, installed in 1982, and dedicated in 1983.
[49] It was designed by architect Paul Byard and was rung for the first time on American soil by the Bishop of New York, the Rt.
The furnaces at Whitechapel could not provide the 23 tons of molten metal required to make the bell, so it was manufactured at a factory in the Netherlands which normally produces ship's propellers.
Damon Albarn had three bells cast from the foundry for "On Melancholy Hill" for the Gorillaz album Plastic Beach, although they were not used on the final song.
The manufacturing patents for the Whitechapel bells have been sold to the bell-hanging company, Whites of Appleton in Oxfordshire, with whom the foundry has had a business relationship for 197 years.
