Hammond and Champness (often styled as H+C) was a British elevator manufacturer.
History
Hammond & Champness was established in 1905 by cousins Ernest Hammond and Harold Champness. The company was known as Hammond Brothers and Champness Ltd. when Leonard Hammond joined the company. Hammond & Champness originally made water-powered hydraulic elevators.
In 1932, the company went bankrupt and was later taken over by E Pollard & Co. Ltd. but still run as a separate company. Later, the company was renamed to simply "Hammond & Champness". In 1967, Hammond & Champness took over Aldous & Campbell's hydraulic elevators.
The company remained independent until 1971, when it was taken over by Dover Corporation of the United States, as a means of entering the British market; however, they continued to make their own elevator components at their own factory in London. They only shared a similar design for the door gear, clutch and door pick up assembly. The elevator controllers were designed by H+C (not Dover) in the 1980's. H+C Dover from the mid-1970s onward was effectively a brand for Dover equipment installed in the UK.
H+C was effectively absorbed into Thyssen along with the rest of Dover's elevator business in 1999. Unlike with Dover brand, which was maintained by ThyssenKrupp until 2001 (as Thyssen Dover), Thyssen decided to not to maintain H+C brand and was effectively phased out, being replaced with Thyssen and then thyssenkrupp brand.
Notable elevator models
- Vernier-Cushion Control (VCC): Passenger elevators for residential buildings (?) that were made to run silent and smooth with accurate floor leveling. Two units of this model were once installed at Highpoint I in Highgate, London.
- The Warden: Hydraulic passenger elevator for residential buildings and elderly homes.
- The Balmoral: Hydraulic passenger elevator for office buildings.
- The Windsor: Hydraulic passenger elevator.
- Type 42: Elevator for residential buildings.
Notable installations
- Hammond & Champness Building (159 St. John Street), London
- Hatton Garden, London
- University of Kent, Kent
- Cornwallis South-East Octagon
- Grimond Building
- Kent Business School (Chipperfield Building) (RARE Impulse, modernized in the 2010s, completely replaced in 2023)
- King College Hospital - Atthur Levin Building, London
- Cardiff Market, Cardiff
- Gatehouse, Harlow
- Blackpool Tower, Blackpool, Lancashire (modernization of 1930s Waygood Otis elevator)
- Royal Cornwall Museum, Truro
- Laura Ahley, Bromley
- Centrale Shopping Centre, Croydon
- The Harlequin Theatre, Redhill
- Lee Longland, Birmingham
- Milford House, Salisbury
- The Collonades Car Park, Doncaster (1989)
- Barnsley Interchange Station (Platforms 1 & 2), Barnsley
- Glasgow Museum of Transport, Glasgow, Scotland
- Glasgow Royal Infirmary - Queen Elizabeth Building, Scotland
- Concert Square Multi-Storey Car Park, Glasgow
- Sheffield Children’s Hospital (see this photo) (replaced in 2018)
- Copthall Leisure Center, Barnet