Radio Rentals Photographic Album
- Made:
- 1940-1970 in West Riding of Yorkshire and United Kingdom
Album containing photographs related to the Radio Rentals company, including images of the Mains Radio Gramaphone factory and later Baird Television factory in Lidget Green, Bradford, 1940-1970. Photographs compiled by C.H. Wood (Bradford) Ltd.
This album contains images relating to the operation of the Radio Rentals company, particularly their factories in Bradford.
Radio Rentals began in Brighton in the 1930s as a business renting radios to people who either could not afford or did not want to purchase one. This was an incredibly popular service and by 1936 Radio Rentals boasted 50,000 customers and had to seek additional supplies of radios to meet demands.
Radio Rentals purchased a factory in Bradford and, from 1948 began manufacturing televisions in addition to radios, eventually dropping radios altogether in 1965.
In 1960 Radio Rentals secured permission to use the Baird name from Margaret Albu, the widow of John Logie Baird. The Bradford manufacturing operations from then on were called the Baird Television Factory. Additional premises were acquired and during the late 1960s Braford boasted the largest television factory in Europe.
In 1978, now part of the Thorn Electrical Industries group, the Bradford Baird Television Factory was closed due to shrinking demand for colour television sets and increasing competition overseas.
Details
- Category:
- Archive
- Object Number:
- 2024-22
- Materials:
- paper (fibre product)
- Measurements:
-
overall (closed): 265 mm x 365 mm x 40 mm,
- type:
- photograph album