The Aladdin factory building was opened officially on the 8th of October 1931 by the Marquis of Londonderry. Lamps and kerosene heaters were made at this site for decades but, as far as I know, nothing interesting happened when the lamps were polished. It eventually closed and became a DIY store until the 1990’s. A Greenford resident told me that he had visited a local hardware store in search of candle wicks and had come across a former Aladdin employee who was something of an expert on the subject. The building will open again on Thursday 5th April as the newest branch of Dunelm Mills. I recommend a visit to the Aladdin Knights website.
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thanks for the info….the good old days!
Did you work there?
Thank you for this! I came across the building on google streetview today and thought it looked so out of place with the other buildings around it – a fairly fancy-looking building in what looked like the middle of nowhere…but thought it to be especially odd since it seemed to be the headquarters or factory for Monster energy drink! Mystery solved, haha.
It was in the middle of nowhere when it was built: https://www.britainfromabove.org.uk/en/image/EPW038793
It once had lots of planting around it, all gone now: https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/side-by-side/#zoom=16&lat=51.54001&lon=-0.35926&layers=170&right=BingHyb
“A Guide to Modernism in Metro-Land”
By Joshua Abbott is a good pocket sized guide to some of these buildings.
It’s now a branch of Dunelm.