Louis Amelius Christanus Adolphus Steigenberger, a chemist from Frankfurt, came to London in  the mid-eighteenth century at the age of nineteen. He had perfected a method, new to the world then, of manufacturing Prussian Blue. He died on 25th March 1814 at the age of seventy three and was buried in St John's churchyard Hackney.

He began operations in London in 1760. Originally he lived with his brother John and his family at Shadwell in East London and at Narrow Street, Limehouse. Both Lewis and John are described at ‘colour makers’.

In 1773 they moved to the Market Square, Shadwell. An order in 1772 from Dublin was addressed to Lewis Berger, "Blue Maker" and the order was for:  Blue Rose, Pink, Blue Venditer, Idigo and Gum Boeage. By 1790 was selling nineteen different pigments as well as Black Lead, Sulphur, Sealing Wax and Mustard.

Lewis Berger, his wife and six children moved to Homerton in 1780 and a family home was built to the north of the factory. His name appears in the records of the Old Bailey as a victim of theft/burglary on three occasions[3/6/1778, 13/9/1780 & 11/5/1796] The site in Water Lane [now Morning Lane] was chosen as the waters in Hackney were so pure ! The water referred to in the early records was a simple well [Well Street, a few meters from the old site still exists today]. As production grew, an artesian well was drilled in the 1800's.

Old plan of the Berger factory dated 1780

Berger House from an oil painting early 18th century

In the background of the print of the family home can be seen the old Berger clock tower. Below is a photo of the original an old clock tower in the factory which was re-built in 1880 and was part of the dry grinding section of the dry colour area. The latter incorporated the original clock and roof and was still in existence when the Homerton plant closed in1958.

The man in the doorway of the original clock tower was a factory hand named J.Blindell who had 70 years continuous service with the company.

Warehouse and Office staff .. about  1870

A group of Berger employees on the lawn of Berger House . about  1870

In the 1785 premises were also purchased in Well Court, Queen Street, Cheapside, with a view to keep in touch with the City and export trade to augment the offices at Homerton. This part of the company was run by Lewis Berger's two sons ~ John and Samuel. In 1814 Lewis Berger died and the two sons took over the running of the Homerton factory. They were 'hands on' owners and the souvenir booklet 'A Notable Record' informs us that 'they were daily to be seen dressed in white smocks and brown paper caps'.

There hopefully remains [somewhere], and probably with an asset stripper, several early customer orders. In 1778 a Mrs Frances Walker of Leeds, purchased 2lb of Prussian Blue at 12/-. There were records of early customers from all over England and he had at least one representative in York. In 1879-9 the most expensive product sold was Drop Lake at 80/- a pound.[ What's that in today's money ? ].

As recently as the 1980s the company archives had records of receipts dating from 1773 through into the 1800’s including one from the artist J.M.W.Turner around 1838, which was the time he painted  'Lucerne and it's Lake' and Turners favourite ‘The Fighting Temeraire’ ~ he referred to this painting as 'his darling' and always refused to sell it. The Doulton factory in Lambeth also purchased some of his paints for decorating their pottery. These receipts/records seemed to have disappeared  with the sell-off of the decorative business.

When Lewis Berger & Sons became a limited company in 1879, it was the founder's great-grandson, Arthur John Berger, who was made Managing Director. In all the official histories of the company he is hailed as an innovative and resourceful businessman whose resignation in 1894 was regarded as a great loss to the firm. In fact, however, Arthur Berger was sacked by the board of directors for his gross mishandling of the company’s affairs. Despite getting rid of the unfortunate Arthur, the company’s fortunes continued to decline to the point where in 1904  Walter Cottingham of the Sherwin Williams company bought out the shareholders at a third of the company’s value.

Roger Tamplin writes in the Berger Record circa 1970: If it was not for the fact that Cottingham's son's wife Vera had retained her British citizenship and inherited the company on Cottingham’s death, the company might still be under American control. [Ho, Ho, Ho,]

Both these pictures date from circa 1909 and appeared in a booklet, published in 1910, celebrating the company's 150th  anniversary

                                   Laboratories at Homerton circa 1948

An engraving of the Lewis Berger & Sons Factory and General offices  .. Homerton site 1880

( covering 4 acres   1 rod   22 perches ~ ~ not many people know that ! )

Homerton site circa 1910

 The Homerton office and laboratory building ~  built 1934

Below is a small booklet, printed on incredibly thin paper and dated July 1943.

In 1934 the company purchased 29 acres of land in Freshwater Road, Chadwell Heath, primarily to manufacture nitrocellulose systems. The Homerton site had size limitations and in the 1950’s the Chadwell Heath site was expanded to accommodated new offices, paint and resin production plants, laboratories and warehouses on the site. The Homerton site finally closed in 1957. The new site was backed by a loan from Shell Chemicals.

The new factory straddled Freshwater Road [ not name after any natural freshwater but a local headmaster]. The materials manufactured on the North Side were transferred by means of a tunnel under the road direct to the warehouse on the South Side. The area south of the road also housed a resin unit, low-flash warehouse, adminis-tration offices, company restaurant and initially the company's sports ground complete with football, cricket pitches and tennis courts. These went in the early 1970's as the plant expanded.

Aerial view Chadwell Heath site circa 1978.

Mixing Tanks and Filling Floor South Side ~ circa 1989

                     Tanker Bay, Tank Farm and Resin Unit ~ circa 1989

The North Side stood empty for until the start of 1988 when demolition began. The emulsion plant came down easy but the No 1 factory built in 1955/6 proved to be more durable than people expected and specialised equipment had to be used to break down the reinforced areas. Demolition was completed at the end of 1988. The site remained empty and unused except for wildlife and desperate courting couples until 2003.