History
It was Walter Gent Lilly, a young plumber, who won the freehold to a builder’s yard at the back of Westminster Abbey following a card game in 1924 and decided to go into business for himself.
When he died, his son, Walter Gordon Lilly continued to work with the business and developed it to include a large timber yard by Streatham Common and a joinery shop in a former Chapel of Rest and Undertaker’s premises.
A shot of the mill showing a log cut through still with its bark intact awaiting conversion through the saw bench. In front of the saw bench can be seen a sack into which sawdust and chips would be swept up - there being no suction extract plant. There is also a tea chest for off-cuts. The off-cuts would be carried manually up a ladder and discharged in to a hopper in the boiler to heat the works and office block. Walter Lilly was first registered in 1939 and the family continued to have an interest in the growing company. |
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The company moved from Westminster to Streatham but in the mid-1950's the timber yard was destroyed by fire, which resulted in its closure. The Lilly family sold the company in 1958 to the Y J Lovell Group, but Walter Lilly continued to trade under it’s own name.
A prestige project for Walter Lilly that year was the creation of the 'Talk of the Town' from the old Hippodrome Theatre in ‘Operation Pickaxe’. The building included hi tech features including chandeliers that retreated electronically into ceiling wells to allow a clear line of sight for the audience, provision of an ice floor and the presentation of a fountain spectacle. One and a third miles of Wilton carpet were used and over a thousand square yards of linoleum in the floor coverings.
The Walter Lilly workforce assembling for the 1953 beano outing. Behind them can be seen the lowered ceiling and bulkhead of the Joiner’s Shop and the door leading to the Joiner’s Shop staircase. The area beneath the lowered ceiling was always cold and said to be haunted. It contained a dowelling machine, coat lockers and saw doctor’s shop. | . |
By the 1960s Walter Lilly had grown to be a main contractor and had established offices in Streatham, Victoria and Esher - later moving to a new site in Thornton Heath, South London, having built new premises for the previous occupants. Walter Lilly remained here until 2001 when it moved into more suitable accommodation in Waddon near Croydon.
The company has continued to grow, with a turnover capability of £80 million in 2007/8, and 160 members of staff.
Walter Lilly celebrated it’s 80th birthday in 2004 and has recently completed a corporate re-branding.
| A spindle moulder being operated by apprentice George Jeffrey. |  |
