Firman Glass, based in Bates Road, is celebrating its 50th anniversary of manufacturing and processing glass products this year.
Starting out as an emergency glazing company in 1975, the independent firm has since worked on numerous high-profile projects, such as providing glass for parts inside Big Ben.
Beau Hodgson, sales estimator and son of managing director Jody Hodgson, told the Recorder: “To get those sort of jobs is a big deal.
“There are so many projects – there’s probably not a place in London you can go where you wouldn’t find our glass.
“And it’s all been through this plant here [in Harold Wood], which is quite an achievement for us.”
Firman produced the glass for walls, floors and a canopy at One Hyde Park (Image: Beau Hodgson/Firman Glass)
A glass box next to Big Ben’s famous bell was done by Firman, as well as the glass floor over the ventilation shaft, which was originally made to cool the tower.
Other projects include the zig-zag glass wall installed at Hackney Wick station in 2018, a canopy, staircase, glass walls and floors at luxury apartment building One Hyde Park, and a 12-metre high glass wall at the Royal Opera House.
Glass manufactured at the Harold Wood plant can even be found in a Formula One team’s wind tunnels – which drivers use to test the aerodynamics of their cars.
But Beau said the “proudest moment” in Firman’s 50-year history was winning a British Construction Industry Award in 1997 for a curved glass canopy at Yurakucho underground station in Tokyo, Japan.
“We were approached in 1997 to take on a job in Tokyo that was said it couldn’t be done and was impossible to manufacture,” Beau said.
“We successfully processed the job and it’s still standing there today.”
Beau’s grandfather, John Hodgson, bought the company in the 1970s when it was an replacement glazing firm that fixed windows in Romford.
He took out a £500 loan to cover his costs and buy new machinery, which Beau described as a “risk, because they didn’t have a lot of money at all” – but the company “flourished”.
John, who has now retired and passed the running of Firman down to his family, told the Recorder: “The most amazing part of this story [is that] to repeat this journey now would be impossible.
“I started with a £500 loan. This allowed one small one-man band to flourish and succeed.”
Despite their major projects in London and beyond, many of Firman’s more than 50 staff are still Harold Hill and Harold Wood residents.
“We have always wanted to give people in the local area a chance,” Beau said.
“There have been a lot of people who have come straight from school, and have been here ever since.
“We trained them up, gave them a trade, gave them a skill and that’s still the case for a lot of the staff now.”
As for the future, Beau said Firman “would like to celebrate the next 50 years here with the next generation”.
