Ogden's Tobacco Company was founded by Thomas Ogden in 1860 when he opened a small retail shop in Park Lane, Liverpool.
Within a short time he had established several branches throughout the city and in six years his own factory in St James' Street.
In 1870 additional premises were acquired in Cornwallis Street and by 1890 Ogden's had six factories in Liverpool.
The present factory at Boundary Lane was built in 1899 and all operations were concentrated at this site when it opened in 1901.




Ogden's tobacco factory power house.

A pair of 430 horsepower inverted vertical compound steam engines built 1923 by Browett, lindley of Patricroft. These were stopped by 1974 but remained on standby in to the 1990s. The works has now closed and it is believed they may have been removed or scrapped. This was one of the last decent multi-engine power houses in the mainland of the UK and it is to be regretted that English Heritage would not afford it any form of statutory protection (the office block is listed).

The chimney is on a power house with the two large Browett, Lindley steam engines.




Old interior photographs of the factory

Cigarette Cards


In 1871 the American company of Allen and Ginter began inserting pieces of card to protect the cigarettes from being damaged. It was not long before tobacco companies had the idea of printing advertisements on these cards, or "stiffeners" as they were called in the trade. In about 1876 companies began producing a series of cards that the smoker could collect. It was believed that this would encourage the smoker to continue using that particular brand.

The first British company to issue cigarette cards was W.D. & H.O. Wills. The first card appeared in 1887 and were at first used to advertise its products. Ogdens, a company based in Liverpool, introduced the first series of cigarette cards in 1894. This series of photographic cards became known as "Guinea Golds".












http://liverpoolpicturebook.com/