London and the birth of the global telecoms and tech industry
From the 1850s, with the development of international telecoms, until the 1980s, London was a forerunner of Silicon Valley — a place where scientists and engineers, investors and innovative companies came together to develop not only global telecoms infrastructure, including…
From the 1850s, with the development of international telecoms, until the 1980s, London was a forerunner of Silicon Valley — a place where scientists and engineers, investors and innovative companies came together to develop not only global telecoms infrastructure, including the optical fibres that are used for what is now the internet, but also radio and television, radar, positioning systems, body scanners, computers and electronics.
London was home to a wealth of industrial research and development labs, backed by organisations from the BBC to EMI, Decca to AEI, and the General Post Office (now BT), along with factories employing thousands of highly qualified people.
With one exception, they have all gone. The exeption is the oldest telecoms factory still on its original site anywhere in the world: Alcatel Submarine Networks in Greenwich, south-east London.
This lecture was delivered in March 2023 to the Greater London Industrial Archaeology Society by Alan Burkitt-Gray, a telecoms and technology journalist since 1973.
