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Image shows the factory of George Bray & Co. Ltd. located in Leicester Place between Grosvenor Place and Devon Road taken from Servia Hill. George Bray & Co. Ltd. was founded in 1863 and became the largest employer in the Woodhouse District manufacturing gas burners and electrical appliances. George Bray patented a gas burner with a porcelain tip which was more efficient than existing burners and could be produced at a lower cost. He was later to develop and produce the draught-proof street lamp. This realised such an increase in orders that he had to open a second factory in Jowett Lane off Carlton Hill. Here a variety of lamps were made. The German invention of the incandescent lamp, c1887, increased the order book even further and by 1894, it became necessary to expand once again. A third factory was opened in Leicester Place which became the main Bray factory for the next 8 years. The female workers were said to have been tagged with the name 'Bray's Angels'. In the 1980s the Leicester Place premises were closed down and the business transferred to the old Coop shoe factory in Education Road, off Meanwood Road. In the Autumn of 1988 the old Bray's factory was demolished. Apartments to accommodate university students have since been built. | License: | http://www.leodis.net/article.aspx?id=12 | Rights holder: | Leeds Central Library | Subjects: | Servia Hill Leicester Place George Bray & Co. Ltd. | Source: | Leodis - A photographic archive of Leeds | Identifier: | http://www.leodis.net/display.aspx?id=20... | Go to resource |
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