Manufacturing: new London factory

It is not often you are cheered up by listening to the news nowadays but on 19 October BBC London news did just that when it reported on the glimmers of industrial regeneration in Southwark, south London.

From the late 1700s to beyond the mid-20th century, London was an industrial powerhouse. But recent decades have witnessed massive deindustrialisation of our capital city.

The recent opening of two new large factories in the heart of London is bucking that awful trend. Hopefully other projects will follow.

Largest

The Isembard engineering company, at 160,000 square feet on 3 floors, proclaims it is the largest factory to be opened in London since the second world war and employs 100 people. Isembard makes parts for robotics, defence and aerospace, and it has plans to double its staff over the next year.

Also in Southwark is Rivan Industries, a company which produces synthetic natural gas generators. This 60,000 square foot facility currently employs 60 people but intends to increase this to 100 over the next year.

Skilled talent

Both companies have shown that skilled engineering talent that once thought it had no chance of being put to use inside London are keen to work in the capital, particularly if they were brought up in the region.

There is a future for high-value, technology-led manufacturing in London which has many assets to draw on namely a skilled workforce, universities, investment and world links.

New facility

Further good news on London’s industrial front comes from Imperial College London. In March of this year the university launched Grapht Works, the city’s first dedicated facility for pilot and demonstration manufacturing.

This hopes to address the oft-missed link between R&D and full-scale commercial manufacturing and aims to make Britain one of the best places in the world to start, grow and invest in advanced manufacturing.