Pilkington’s Glass Head Office

As a kid growing up in St. Helens, Pilkington’s glass was everywhere. Parts of the factories were dotted about all over the town, Lord and Lady Pilkington lived in a big house just off the East Lancs. road. In the summer Harry and Mavis would host grand garden parties and nowhere was the grandeur of Pilkington’s glass more evident than the head office complex. My nan worked in the canteen there and we’d spend warm days playing around the lake and visiting the glass museum. Visiting the site today is not so uplifting though. Following changes in global industry Pilkington’s Glass left the town, leaving just traces of the manufacturing behind. The head office complex was taken over by Royal Bank of Scotland for a while before being sold to developers with plans to create luxury apartments. Plans stalled with the outbreak of Covid and the subsequent lockdown. The canteen is now destroyed. The first time I visited I was warned not to go in by some kids riding their bikes around. Once inside the state was clear to see, everything, except concrete had been ripped. A light in a dark corner drew my attention, it was a group of men and women smoking crack. The place had become apartments of sorts. The main building was more secure, CCTV, warning alarms and security guards with dogs kept the structure reasonably intact. Inside it resembles a Stanley Kubrick film set, an extraordinary glass mural created in the 1960s by an internationally renowed glass artist fixed to the wall, staircases surrounded by textured glass panels. It remains impressive but it is also a sad sight, a visual illustration of Britain’s industrial decline but more specifically the demise of my hometown.