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twenty four † twenty five
essential for workers still laying out lead type letter-by-letter at the time
it was built. These 1913 works still stand intact at the south of the current
site, adjacent to a listed Georgian terrace. The name, Bobby & Co Crescent
Printing Works, still exists on the frontage (although now under a layer of
paint). [9.]
Not long after, in 1915, the furniture factory was also based in new
premises, with a range of buildings adjacent to the print works. In 1915, an
advert in the local paper Thanet Advertiser, calls for “Platen Hands and
Machine Minders to fill vacancies caused by enlistment” at Bobby & Co
in Union Crescent. [11] After the First World War Bobby & Co continued
to prosper and in 1927 it sold off the stores side of the business to The
Drapery Trust, (later to become Debenhams). [12.]
In 1939, war broke out for a second time and with a population of
40,000 Margate was a frontline town with 14,000 buildings. By 1945,
just six years later, the town recorded a drop of three quarters of its
“I think a lot of people took pride in the fact that they were working ...
population, to just 9,000. Some 9,170 of its buildings were damaged and
268 had been destroyed. This loss and damage resulted in many deserted
homes and buildings and a significant change to the local market and
workforce. However, throughout the war, Bobby & Co Ltd kept their works
open and continued to print. In 1944, one of Bobby & Co’s customers
Bognor Regis-based publisher, John Crowther Ltd bought the print works.
By the time Margate’s first post-war tourist guide [70.] was printed, for
the 1946 season, the printworks had adopted the print business name from
1796; The Thanet Press.
In 1947, the Royal printer Eyre & Spottiswoode took over the
printworks and adjacent empty furniture factory buildings.
Their three London printworks had all been bombed, so
‘YOUR VOICE’
they moved their works to the Margate site, where
Have you any family or work
they employed ninety staff. They also acquired The
connections with a particular skill
Grosvenor Press, in Portsmouth, and for the next
or type of work? Some family names
forty years ran both works simultaneously. Over
give clues to working origins, and
time Eyre & Spottiswoode assembled sites that
some families still live in an area
had once been a mix of residential properties,
which offered previous generations
small
workshops, stables and Bobby’s furniture
continuous work. Local graveyards
factory on Princes Street, for a new, modern
can be a rich source of
printworks.
In 1953 they consolidated the site, as
hidden heritage
it
exists
today.
They built a new bindery, on the end of
stories.
