GE Thorn Lighting Leicester - Feb 2011

[Lost Explorer]

Recently went here with DHL. Here is a bit of history (modified MDs history a bit, hope you dont mind)

The Melton Road factory opened in 1946 mass producing light bulbs. At the time being owned by British Thomson-Houston. It later became part of AEI Group and eventually Thorn until GE bought the lamp division in 1991.

The factory was once one of Leicester's largest employing around 300 skilled workers. It closed in 2007 and was a massive blow to the local community with the loss if 270 skilled jobs. The site is currently up for sale.

All of the rest are here

 

[Scaramanger]

This place seems to be really popular at the moment...Hope to see it myself soon...

 

[MD]

nice one no worries
i love the funky lampshades

 

[King Al]

Great pics LE, like the staircase and those lampshades

 

[jameswildcooper]

good photos mate. im tempted to have another look around this place cant get enough of it

if any of you lads want to go PM me will sort something out

 

[Goldie87]

Have you seen some of the changes they have made there JWC?

 

[jameswildcooper]

yeh they have been ripping the metal wall structures out from inside the middle warehouse. gutting it of all the metal i reckon?

 

[Goldie87]

Yeah have seen a load of stuff has been ripped out. Not allowed to give details on this thread, but the security has changed a bit too from what we saw the other week.

 

[jameswildcooper]

PM me info on security please. ive noticed they have moved a bit i cant see them now so dont know whats going on tbh

 

[MD]

JWC
youll have to come and have a look around another site one night with us
Goldie will fill you in

 

[jameswildcooper]

Oo yeah send me more details. Ive spotted another place not to far away...

 

[devonian42]

Thanks, LE for this post.

Didn't realise this had closed. Mixed memories for me of this place.

I served my first pre-graduate apprenticeship at this site in 1973 during the oil crisis, had to watch when the garage opposite had petrol deliveries to get in the queue to grab some. Happy days.

Spent most of my days in the apprentice school block to the north of the main complex. This was close to the med centre which proved useful as a place to sleep off a works outing the night before when I was introduced to whisky and orange - a potent cocktail I still cannot face to this day!

The oil crisis also entailed a 3 day working week, but apprentices had to do 5-days. To fill the 2 days without power, the plant powered up a massive generator they acquired which was as big as one of those white portakabins you captured in one of your pics. This allowed us to stand next to a generater powered production machine shaped like a carousel which produced the stem part of the old filament lamps . Our job was to throw away any broken ones as they flowed out of the machine - like watching grass grow.

 

[LittleMrBigStuff]

Just a quick update on the site, took a stroll past today to see how the demolition is progressing and boy are they cracking on with it, security is extremely tight as you can imagine with the works that are going on, we stopped by the main gate to ask if they would show us around and let us take some photos and were basically told to F-off, so i could only get photos from the perimeter, also there are people from the company viewing DP and 28days to see if anymore "tresspasings" have happened, so IF you visit the site use extreme caution anyway here are some shots


front

P4160256 by littlemrbigstuff, on Flickr


P4160257 by littlemrbigstuff, on Flickr

from the troon way side

P4160259 by littlemrbigstuff, on Flickr


P4160261 by littlemrbigstuff, on Flickr

from the park at the back


P4160262 by littlemrbigstuff, on Flickr


P4160263 by littlemrbigstuff, on Flickr


P4160264 by littlemrbigstuff, on Flickr


sorry for the crappy shots but like i said we had no actual access to the site the photos are through the fence but you get the idea

 

[Goldie87]

They are really ripping the place apart quick, was down there thursday and looks like quite a bit has happened since then!

 

[jameswildcooper]

thought id just say they have more or less finished ripping the main building down now.

it looks like a scene out of the twin towers aftermath....

 

[Snips86x]

Nice post. Shame it has been ripped down, would have liked to visit this place

 

[Scaramanger]

Buildings gutted - I'm gutted... Never got to visit....

Once all gone probably sit for months as a baron wasteland....

 

[Lost Explorer]

I went by last night and pretty much all that remains of the main building now is the fire escape stairwell! The ground floor has collapsed by the looks of things!