Hammond and Champness (often styled as H+C) was a British elevator manufacturer, once owned by the Dover Corporation from 1971 to 1997.
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 Hammond & Champness originally made water-powered hydraulic elevators.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.
Dover sold H+C, as well as its German elevator marketing subsidiary, to Thyssen on 30 June 1997[1]. This happened one and half a year before Thyssen acquired the rest of Dover's elevator division (in January 1999). Subsequently, the H+C brand was retired and the parent company, Hammond & Champness Limited, transferred its operational activities to Thyssen Lifts and Escalators Limited (since 2 June 2003 ThyssenKrupp Elevator UK Limited), making it a dormant company fully owned by ThyssenKrupp Aufzuge Limited (until 2 June 2003 Thyssen Aufzuge Limited) - the British holding company of ThyssenKrupp Elevator. Hammond & Champness Limited was dissolved on 16 October 2013[2].
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
See also
Gallery
