Coventry - the official guide, 1937 : The GEC Telephone Works
From a fine 1937 official guide to the City of Coventry, that was designed and produced to a very high standard with some attention to typography and layout, an advert for GEC's Coventry Telephone Works.
GEC, the major British producer of "all things electric" had started to dabble in telecommunications equipment early on in the Twentieth Century with equipment manufactured at the Peel Works in Manchester but it was with their employment of an American Merritt Scott Conner in c1909 that they really started to focus on telephony and updating their product range. This led to GEC forming the Peel-Conner Company and it was in 1915 that Conner suggested a site at Stoke in Coventry would make a suitable base for a new telephone factory.
Post-WW1 GEC developed the Coventry site as seen here, liquidated the Peel-Conner Company rebranding all products as GEC and in 1923 Conner returned to the US. GEC benefitted from the growth in telephony and the investment made by the GPO, who then ran the UK's telecommunications network, in both 'phone appartus and exchange equipment through the 'bulk supply agreements'. By the date of this advert GEC had expanded on the Coventry site and during the war years, when they made vital radio equipment, their presence in the city grew further. The long and complex saga of the history of GEC's telecommunications business meant that ultimately the site of the works here involved both Ericsson and Telent who vacated the Stoke site early in the present century and the site is now cleared for redevelopment.
Coventry - the official guide, 1937 : The GEC Telephone Works
From a fine 1937 official guide to the City of Coventry, that was designed and produced to a very high standard with some attention to typography and layout, an advert for GEC's Coventry Telephone Works.
GEC, the major British producer of "all things electric" had started to dabble in telecommunications equipment early on in the Twentieth Century with equipment manufactured at the Peel Works in Manchester but it was with their employment of an American Merritt Scott Conner in c1909 that they really started to focus on telephony and updating their product range. This led to GEC forming the Peel-Conner Company and it was in 1915 that Conner suggested a site at Stoke in Coventry would make a suitable base for a new telephone factory.
Post-WW1 GEC developed the Coventry site as seen here, liquidated the Peel-Conner Company rebranding all products as GEC and in 1923 Conner returned to the US. GEC benefitted from the growth in telephony and the investment made by the GPO, who then ran the UK's telecommunications network, in both 'phone appartus and exchange equipment through the 'bulk supply agreements'. By the date of this advert GEC had expanded on the Coventry site and during the war years, when they made vital radio equipment, their presence in the city grew further. The long and complex saga of the history of GEC's telecommunications business meant that ultimately the site of the works here involved both Ericsson and Telent who vacated the Stoke site early in the present century and the site is now cleared for redevelopment.