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Carreras Cigarette Factory

Five hundred and fifty feet of Egyptian temple on Hampstead Road, with two black cats at the door.

IndustrialArt Deco

Photo by Philafrenzy, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Carreras Tobacco Company built the Arcadia Works between 1926 and 1928, four years after Howard Carter opened Tutankhamun's tomb and the whole of Europe went Egyptian. M. E. and O. H. Collins, with A. G. Porri, gave it a colonnade of papyrus capitals, a solar disc to Ra over the entrance and two enormous bronze cats flanking the door - the company's trademark was a black cat. A 1961 conversion to offices stripped every bit of it off. The restoration of the late 1990s put the colour, the disc and replica cats back, so what stands on Hampstead Road now is a 1920s Egyptian fantasy rebuilt from photographs.

Where
Hampstead Road, Mornington Crescent, NW1 7QY
Nearest station
Mornington Crescent · 2 min walk

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