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The Venue History

The Old Vinyl Factory, formerly owned by the British music company EMI, was responsible for producing vinyl records for 20th-century musicians like The Rolling Stones and Pink Floyd. The 18-acre complex was also home to the factory for Heinz and Nestle and the headquarters for HMV, with Nipper the dog standing 18 feet tall at the entrance.

1900-1907
The Gramophone and Typewriter Company purchased the site in the early 1900s and began constructing the first buildings where the company built and sold gramophones.

1910
From 1910, 78 RPM records were released on His Master’s Voice record label.

1914 – 1918
During the First World War, the factory produced munitions for soldiers to use during battle.

1927 – 1929
The architecture company Wallis, Gilbert & Partners was invited to design a new, state-of-the-art factory with art deco finishes. They extended the cabinet department, administration building and evaporating plant and built the record store, research laboratories, powerhouse and shipping department, which employed 7,500 people.

1931
The Gramophone Company merged with the English Columbia Graphophone Company to create Electric and Musical Industries Ltd (EMI) to become an innovative, technological hotspot.

1932
The company’s in-house Central Research Laboratory department (CRL) made a breakthrough in high-definition television and stereo sound, with the world’s first stereo recording being of trains pulling in and out of Hayes train station.

1939 – 1945
During the Second World War, the factory returned to producing munitions as well as domestic radio receivers, before being bombed on 7 July 1944. The CRL department pioneered the airborne radar system that saved thousands of lives at sea.

1952
The factory started producing records made of vinyl, rather than the shellac-based compound used previously, for The Rolling Stones, Cliff Richard and Pink Floyd.

1963 – 1967
An unknown band from Liverpool called The Beatles were signed to the label, propelling EMI to the front and centre of the music industry, with its 14,000-people workforce. Every album recorded by The Beatles, from Revolver to Sgt Pepper, was made in Hayes.

1970 – 1973
The Gramophone Company Ltd was renamed EMI Records Ltd and had 22,000 employees at this time, producing records for Queen, Pink Floyd and Deep Purple.

1978
The cassette player became the new must-have, making vinyl sales dwindle so EMI merged with Thorn and moved its vinyl operations away from Hayes, leaving many of the factory buildings empty.

1996
The Central Laboratories stayed open in Hayes until their closure in 1996.

2011
The factory was acquired by U+I and renamed The Old Vinyl Factory, before being reimagined for the digital age by the architects, Studio Egret West, whilst retaining the site’s incredible heritage. The Central Research Laboratory department (CRL) relaunch and The Shipping Building sees its first commercial tenants including Sonos, SITA and GoDaddy.

2017
The old factory was refurbished and 642 homes were built on site.

2021
Weston Homes launches The Venue, the final phase of The Old Vinyl Factory, in 2021, an exciting development of 181 one, two and three bedroom homes.

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