Ever given a second glance to this huge building in Hackney? Laurie Elks delves into its extraordinary history to explain why you should

NEXT TIME YOU WALK along Stoke Newington Road in north London, pause to take in the building at the corner of Somerford Grove, The House of Simpson. That grand title, deeply etched above the pompously tall main entrance, still tries to assert itself. But time is chipping away at the lettering, and gaps have appeared.

The building, sometimes described as being styled “stripped classical with art deco details”, was designed by London firm Hobden and Porri and erected in 1929 as the headquarters of the Simpson’s clothing brand. Over the years it has been put to a variety of uses, most lately flats, storage and retail.

Simeon Simpson was the name used by a tailor from an East European Jewish family. He had grown up in inner London and in 1894, aged 16, set up a stall in Petticoat Lane in the City district of Houndsditch. By 1917 he’d taken several premises in the locality, creating one of the UK’s most successful clothing companies.

The Simpsons, like many immigrant families left the slums on the City edge when their circumstances improved. They bought a house in Bethune Road, Stoke Newington, and Simeon was elected to Hackney council. The area, already well established as a centre of the clothing business, was the perfect place to create new premises.

The frontage at 92 Stoke Newington Road dates from 1929. The massive extension around the corner, in Somerford Grove, was opened in 1934 when Simpsons launched its what became world-beating Daks trousers.

The House of Simpson was a superbly functional industrial building with wide gangways and lifts, and the workrooms necessary for handling goods, light and airy for skilled tailoring. By the mid-1930s the factory handled almost 2,500km (1,500 miles) of cloth a week and employed about 2,000 people.

The Daks trouser, said to be an amalgam of “Dad” and “slacks”, was a sensation, the world’s first self-supporting trouser, freeing men “from the bondage of belts and braces”, by sewing rubber pads into the waistband to hold the trousers in place and prevent the shirt riding up – just right for an active man wanting to enjoy an unimpeded golf swing.

In 1937 Simpson’s started making women’s clothes. After the 1939-1945 war it broadened into a leading fashion brand.Simpson’s archive images, such as this picture of one of the finishing rooms, show airy, specious premises — and exemplary standards of dress.

The factory was a sought-after workplace, providing job training and security, social outings, sport clubs and a drama group. The canteen served wholesome meals — and a radiogram (think music centre) concert at lunchtime. Often several members and even generations of one family would be employed over the years.

Simpson began the move out of London during the Blitz, eventually moving its HQ to Larkhall in South Lanarkshire, near Glasgow.

By the early 1960s only a handful of people worked in the factory. Cheap-labour foreign competition in the 1980s and 1990s did for Simpsons and the Daks brand is now owned by Sankyo Seiko, a Japanese company.

Despite its slightly down-at-heel look, the House of Simpson still beams with 1920s brio. Hackney council has listed the art deco delight — but that will not frighten developers. Surely it deserves the comparative security of a national listing?

Published 271222

* The writer has lived in Hackney since 1972. He edited Hackney: Portrait of a Community for the Hackney Society and is custodian of St Augustine’s Tower in The Narroway, Hackney E8 1HT.

* The art deco style is well-represented in Hackney, although not all its manifestations have been as cared for as two of the most prominent, Hackney Town Hall and the Rio Cinema, the Editor notes. Many have suffered more than Simpson’s, being converted to a multiplicity of uses, from snooker hall to mosque.

* Backstory: Art deco and gentrification in Hackney; Lost African art found in Shoreditch

* Black-and-white pix courtesy the Daks archive; colour pix for sale via © [email protected]

* Emboldened underscored words in most cases indicate a hyperlink, a reader service rare among websites. If a link does not work, it is probably because the site to which the URL refers has not been maintained. 

* Links to articles in The Guardian do not imply any approval of the newspaper’s historic slavery links.