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Andrew Watson
Andrew Watson

Collins Factory

Strathclyde University Archives

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Collins Factory

The former Herriot Hill Stationery & Printing Works of William Collins Sons and Co in Cathedral Street, built in 1902 and photographed just before demolition in 1978.

William Collins established a business in Candleriggs in 1819, publishing religious pamphlets, sermons, prayer and hymn books. In 1824 he produced his first dictionary and obtained a licence to publish the Bible. His son William introduced modern printing processes and the quantity and variety of their publishing expanded to include low-value classics, travel and scientific books, atlases, encyclopedias and dictionaries. At the beginning of the 20th century, Collins began to publish original fiction, including the firm's first Agatha Christie novel in 1926. This business flourished with the boom in sales of inexpensive paperback books in the 1950s. William Collins, Sons & Co became wholly owned by News Corporation in 1990 and was renamed HarperCollins Publishers.

The first Herriot Hill factory dates from 1861, and the building illustrated here was built in 1902. Production was moved to Bishopbriggs in 1967. The building was acquired by the University of Strathclyde in 1973, and the Curran Building was opened on the site in 1981.

Reference: P2/8/1

Reproduced with the permission of Strathclyde University Archives

Keywords:
Bibles, books, Curran Building, factories, HarperCollins Publishers, Herriot Hill Stationery & Printing Works, News Corporation, novels, printers, printing, publishers, publishing, University of Strathclyde buildings, William Collins, Sons & Co



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