Bauhaus Kolleg XII - Mid Term Presentation

topic: A Catalyst for the Region?project participants:Susana S. Saraiva

Bauhaus Kolleg XII (2010/2011)

East TilburyEngland

HISTORYWhen starting researching for this topic it seemed

not necessary to look for the reasons for Bata UK choice: The company wanted to conquer the British mar-ket being the only remaining question why the selection of the particular site of East Tilbury for its main satellite city and how did it relate to its surround-ings.

However, during the field research we realized that there were technicalities of the Bata company that we were not aware before, namely its organization and strategy to reach foreign markets.

In 1931, in order to survive the Great Depression, and the protective policies of European countries ap-plying taxes to foreign companies the company estab-lishes factories abroad, together with housing estates for employees in the style of Zlín architecture creat-ing a coherent image recognisable as Bata.

In Britain’s case, Bata starts selling in that country around 1920s and a trading office is established in London already in 1924.

In 1933 Bata East Tilbury starts producing and un-til 1965 several others production plants are estab-lished in Britain to support East Tilbury production.

From 1960s onward Trade Union becomes stronger and Bata company starts its withdrawal from Britain selling part of the estate in 1970; subcontracting and demol-ishing several communal facilities in the estate around 1975. In 1980 Bata sells the housing estate and the shops to Sears and finally closes in 2006.

BAUHAUS KOLLEG XII (2010|2011)URBAN FOOTPRINTS: BATA CITIES - MID-TERM PRESENTATION

A CATALYST FOR THE REGION - EAST TILBURYSUSANA SOARES SARAIVA

BATA STARTS SELLING IN THE BRITISH MARKET

BATA SHOE AND LEATHER CO.:LONDON TRADING OFFICE

BATA BUYS SITE IN EAST TILBURY FOR A BATA CITY

BATA EAST TILBURY STARTS PRODUCING RUBBER AND LEATHER FOOTWEAR

BATA MARYPORT, CUMBRIA STARTS PRODUCING RUBBER FOOTWEAR

BATA DUDLEY, WEST MIDLANDS STARTS PRODUCING HEAVY INDUSTRIAL LEATHER BOOTS AND FOOTBALL BOOTS

BATA ET = 3000 WORKERSBRITISH BATA = 5000 WORKERS

MANUFACTURE BEGANS TO SHIFT OVERSEAS

PART OF BATA PROPERTY IS SOLD TO FAIRVIEW PRIVATE DEVELOPERS

BATA BEGANS TO CONTRACDEMOLISHION OF FARM, SCHOOL, T.COLLEGE, SWIMING POOL

BATA SELLS HOUSIGN ESTATEBATA SELLS RETAIL SHOPS

FACTORY IS DISPOSEDPRODUCTION CONTINUES IN RENTED SPACE

PRODUCTION IN RENTED SPACE STOPS

BATA COMPANY CLOSES

BATA CUMNOCK, SCOTLAND STARTS PRO-DUCING FOOTWEAR

1920 1924 1931 1933 1940 1945 1949 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1997 2004 2006

PEAK

WHY BRITAIN?In the beginning of 1930s the Bata shoe company

rules the European shoe market. It looks only logical its move to conquer the UK market. Britain however, had a well-established shoe industry in the north, based on the British tradition, of customize and quality footwear. British Bata would shake this in-dustry with its cheap prices of canvas footwear sold on groovy shops with complete foot care services.

In the Bata organization each subsidiary company had a great degree of independence, following the guidelines of the mother company but with specific goals and market targets.

British Bata was responsible for:Far East and West Indies market, inclusive sur-

vey for new places for establishing new production plants;

Search for new raw materials sources in Africa, USA and Canada;

Training workers and managers to supervise ac-tions on those areas like Sierra Leone, Malaysia, USA and Canada;

Around 1960s, the Trading office in London is closed and moved to Canada, along with the company headquarters, British Bata planning department is then responsible for designing plans and buildings especially for Bata India.

So, unlike our first understanding of the company, East Tilbury was not just a Bata satellite city, pro-ducing shoes for the British Market according to the Headquarters commands, but an independent company with its own market targets, goals, suppliers, etc…

It was also pretty much export oriented – 40% of its total production was sent to mainly Far East and West Indies.

Confirming this hypothesis is the fact that, when looking for Bata advertisements in UK fashion maga-zines from 1935 to 1975, we can hardly find anything. The company didn’t focused on promoting its image to the British public. It relied on governmental con-tracts and exports for its sustainability.

So, why Britain? Because of the British Colonies potential, not only in terms of market sells, but also in the opportunity of establishing production plants in places with less protective polices against for-eign companies, less demanding bureaucratic proce-dures, less workers protection, less Trade Unionism (even if that was not always the case, like in India, it still compensated in terms of workers rights, to set up on those countries).

And also because of the enormous availability of raw materials at very competitive prices.

As production plants start functioning in those countries the company starts exporting mainly to Eu-rope, North America and Canada. As competition grows and Bata starts loosing its governmental contracts (great amount coming from the war), the company’s former leadership is taken over.

Today however one of Bata’s main markets is In-dia, which proofs that Britain, was probably a very well calculated bet.



WHY BRITAIN?

FAR EAST

WEST INDIES

EXPORTS - MAIN

IMPORTS

DISTRIBUTION CENTERS

EXPORT 40% OF TOTAL PRODUCTION

IMPORT

RAW MATERI

AL - RU

BBER

IMPORT RAW

MATERIAL - RUBBER + OTHERS

EXPORT 40% OF TOTAL PRODUCTION

IMPORT RAW MATERIAL - LEATHER

IMPOR

T RAW MATERIAL - LEATHER

BRITISH COLONIES

BRITISH BATAThere was: a leather factory in Lancashire; a

Mill in Leicester (textiles); production plant at Maryport, established in 1940, specialized in rubber footwear; production plant at Dudley, West Midlands in 1949, specialized in heavy industrial leather footwear and football boots; production plant at Cumnock established in 1965, we believe specialized in canvas footwear (?).

All the production of these facilities would be transported to Bata East Tilbury thru the company’s lorries and then distributed to the British mar-ket also by lorry or exported by boat, thru Tilbury docks.

Apparently, the train trasportation was never heavily used by Bata, despite its close location to East Tilbury. One of the reasons might be the prob-lems existing between the rail company and Bata from the beginning of the settlement. Bata had to have long negotiations with the rail company to be al-lowed to build a station on site. It was only built in the end of 1930s, paid by Bata on location chosen by the rail company and not on site desired by Bata.

British Bata followed the model established by the mother company in Zlín including production sys-tem, architecture, planning, communication, social and professional ethics.

For that reason the company tend to prefer un-skilled or semi-skilled people to be trained from scratch, moulded into the Bata way. Even those hired for higher positions, like management, had to com-plete the Bata training that included experience in all departments of the production plants, from cleaning, to production, sales and management.

In British case, as the company decides to settle a production plant in this country around 1930-31, it complied not only with the traditional planning rules, but also the vertical control organization of the company.

The new settlement was located slightly near the London Trading office, to the East, along side the River Thames, next to Tilbury docks: the main ex-port/import facility of London and Britain.

The central location, near the capital city and the main export facility allowed quick connections both out as to the inner land where there were the more proper places to establish other Bata companies aimed to support East Tilbury:



BRITISH BATA

FAR EAST

WEST INDIES

40%

300 SHOPS60%

TRADING OFFICE1935-1960S

EAST TILBURY1933-2006

TANERY

MILL

MARYPORT 1940

CUMNOCK 1964

DUDLEY 1949

HISTORICAL REASONS FOR ALLOCATION

Following the general common Bata rules, the set-tlement is located near a big economic centre (and Bata trading office), but far enough to not be influ-enced by its urbanity.

Bata wanted to be located in a region that had no shoe tradition so that the potential employees would not come with “professional habits”; slightly rural in character with cheap land and not influenced by trade unionism. That way people were more likely to comply with Bata rules, and subject themselves to Batas working conditions.

The site chosen, in the East of London, was suf-fering for de-industrialization for some years with a high rate of unemployment being Tilbury docks the main employer of the region. Even if the payments in the docks were high, there was no security in the job, because the workers were hired by the day, and you never knew if you would have a job tomorrow.

Bata recruited workers mainly from the surround-ing villages or towns.

The site was a potato farm, crossed by a main road that connected an old military fort located on the Riverside (Coalhouse fort) to the rail line and up North to Grays, and London to the West and South-end to the East. There was also a road connecting to Tilbury docks.

The land was mainly Marshfield’s with gravel in the sublevel considered good both for laying out the foundations of buildings and to be used as construc-tion material.

On the North side the farm was crossed by London-Southend rail line.

Even if, that track existed since 1850 this area remained quite rural in character (around 90%), which was considered a plus by Tomas Bata.

If we analyse the growth of London, and the sur-rounding area of East Tilbury, we realize that the settlement still remains quite detached from its surroundings, being the exception the neighbourhoods dating from 1970s. The old urban centres continue their modest development, unaware of Bata existence, and some others appear more related to the previous than to Bata settlement.



HISTORICAL REASONS FOR ALLOCATION

GREATER LONDON AND EAST THAMES - 1940 GREATER LONDON AND EAST THAMES - 1979 GREATER LONDON AND EAST THAMES - 2010

THURROCK 1935

-

CORRINGHAM

STANFORD-LE-HOPEORSETT

ROMFORD

TILBURY

GRAVESEND

MAIN URBAN SETTLEMENTS

RIVER THAMES

BATA SETTLEMENT

THURROCK COUNCIL

RAIL LINE LONDON-SOUTHEND 1850

MAIN ROADS

GRAYS

EAST TILBURY

CHAFFORD HUNDRED

Farmer Wilson farm: - marshfields facilitate construction - gravel below can be ex-tracted and used for construc-tion

LONDON

CONDITIONS OF THE REGION - URBAN SETTLEMENTS

In 1931, Thurrock council was considered by many “the wasteland of London”, preferential place for settling of industrial activity connected to the River Thames, it was clearly in decay by that time. The main industry in the area was cement (the extrac-tion of chalk and clay led to the existence of a lot of quarries in the area), brick, soap, margarine and oil refineries in west Thurrock, because oil, could not pass Coalhouse fort area, for the safety of Lon-don.

However, as said before, all these industries were dying around the time Bata announced the inten-tion of coming to the area. Obviously the news was received with appraisal. The council was suffering by severe unemployment rates. The area was mainly rural 90%, mainly potato culture, sold in London on Convent Garden and transported by train. There was clear lack of transport infrastructures and facili-ties besides the rail and docks mainly existing to serve industry and London.

The main settlements were Tilbury town, Grays, Orset, Stanford-le-Hope. The market was in Romford were people from the region would go once a week, and to Gravesend for leisure on the weekends.

As Bata settles in, it catches mainly people from this surrounding settlements, plus Chadwell and some from the other side of the River – Gravesend – who would come by ferry. They would cycle in, walk and use Bata bus service mainly.

Besides all Bata promises, the settlement never became more than a small village, hosting less than 1/4 of its workers. Most workers remained in their hometown, commuting everyday to East Tilbury.

As reported by a former manager, arriving at East Tilbury train station was impressive: the intense smell of rubber, and the movement of cars and people concentrated in that small place in the middle of green fields was astonishing.

The company didn’t seem to have any suppliers in the region besides shoebox making.

The facilities on site were enough for resi-dents but didn’t attracted outsiders accept, maybe on weekends, for special events in the ballroom.

The surrounding areas continue to develop, inde-pendent from the Bata settlement. As it starts its decline, there is no support urban structure to hold it, except, the old residents and the Designation of English Heritage.



CONDITIONS OF THE REGION - URBAN SETTLEMENTS

CORRINGHAM


ROMFORD

TILBURY

GRAVESEND

GRAYSEAST TILBURY

CHAFFORDHUNDRED

THURROCK 1935

CORRINGHAM

STANFORD-LE-HOPE

HORNDON HILL

ORSETT

TILBURY

GRAVESEND

GRAYS

CHAFFORDHUNDRED

WEST THURROCK

PURFLEET

AVELEY

CHADWELLST.MARY

LINFORDEAST TILBURY

SOUTH OCKEDON

NORTH STIFFORD

SOUTH STIFFORD

NORTH OCKEDON

THURROCK 2010

BASILDON



CONDITIONS OF THE REGION - TRANSPORT

GRAVESEND

EAST TILBURY

THURROCK 1935

ST.CHADS RD

OCKENDON R

D

ST MARYS LN

RAINHAM RD

WARLEY ST

THE MANORWAY

LONDON RD

CALCUTTA

RAINHAM RDS

NORTH ROAD

NEW ROAD A1306

BRENTWOOD ROAD A128

DOCK RD

GRAVESEND

EAST TILBURY

THURROCK 2010

M25

ST.CHADS RD

OCKENDON R

D

ST MARYS LN

RAINHAM RD

WARLEY ST

THE MANORWAY

LONDON RD

CALCUTTA

RAINHAM RDS

NORTH ROAD

NEW ROAD A1306

BRENTWOOD ROAD A128

DOCK RD

A13

A206

A127

CONDITIONS OF THE REGION - TRANSPORT

Today, Thurrock Council presents, ironically many characteristics of 1930: suffering severely from the effects of de-industrialization, lack of infrastruc-tures, lack of facilities, high rate of unemployment, lack of life quality standards. The area remains a mix of countryside with industrial landscape. Til-bury docks are still operating as major receiver of imports to the country – goods and people. But a new container port is being planned East of East Til-bury that will certainly produce some changes in the character of the region.

There is also a lot of pressure to extend the growth of London to this area, but maybe because of its past history, Thurrock people tend to mistrust London’s intentions. Curiously enough, they tend to refuse any kind of development for the region.

The Bata settlement, remains, a small village in the middle of green fields, enclosed by the rail line. Only residents go to that area.

CONDITIONS OF THE REGION



CONDITIONS OF THE REGION

EASTTILBURY

RIVER THAMES

WESTTHURROCK

lakeside

arena essexraceway CHAFFORD

HUNDRED

CHADWELLST.MARY

WEST TILBURY

BADGERSDENE

TILBURY

ORSETT

NORTHSTIFFORD

STANFORD-LE-HOPE

BULPHAN

LITLE MALGRAVES

NORTHOCKENDON

CORRINGHAM

SHELL HAVEN

CORYTON

LONDONGATEWAY

FORBING

SOUTHOCKENDON

EASTTILBURY

GRAYSPURFLEET

NORTHFLEETSWANSCOMBEGREENHITHE

STONE

GRAVESEND

SOUTHSTIFFORD

AVERLY

GREATLONDON

M25

EUROSTAR

BATASETTLEMENT

THURROCK COUNCIL

MAIN ACCESS ROADS

SECONDARY ACCESS ROADS

RAIL LINE

EUROSTAR

RIVER THAMES

BATA SETTLEMENT

SURROUNDING URBAN AREAS

RAIL LINE STATION

EUROSTAR STATION

RIVER THAMES

HORNDON-ON-HTE-HILL

LINFORD

LONDON-SOUTHEND

A13



CONDITIONS OF THE REGION - COMERCIAL CENTRES

CORRINGHAM


ROMFORD

TILBURY

GRAVESEND

GRAYSEAST TILBURY

CHAFFORDHUNDRED

MARKET - ONCE WEEK

BATA SETTLEMENT

THURROCK 1935

CORRINGHAM

STANFORD-LE-HOPE

HORNDON HILL

ORSETT

TILBURY

GRAVESEND

GRAYS

CHAFFORDHUNDRED

WEST THURROCK

PURFLEET

AVELEY

CHADWELLST.MARY

LINFORD

EAST TILBURY

SOUTH OCKEDON

NORTH STIFFORD

SOUTH STIFFORD

NORTH OCKEDON

THURROCK 2010

BATA SETTLEMENT

SHOPPING

BASILDON

CONDITIONS OF THE REGION - COMMERCIAL CENTRES



CONDITIONS OF THE REGION - MOVEMENT OF PEOPLE

CORRINGHAM


ROMFORD

GRAYS

GRAVESEND

EAST TILBURY

CHAFFORDHUNDRED

THURROCK 1935

MARKET ONCE A WEEK

MARKET - ONCE WEEK

WORK

LEISURE - WEEKENDS

BATA SETTLEMENT

COMMUTING TO LONDON

TILBURY

CORRINGHAM

STANFORD-LE-HOPE

HORNDON HILL

ORSETT

TILBURY

GRAVESEND

GRAYS

CHAFFORDHUNDRED

WEST THURROCK

PURFLEET

AVELEY

CHADWELLST.MARY

LINFORD

EAST TILBURY

SOUTH OCKEDON

NORTH STIFFORD

SOUTH STIFFORD

NORTH OCKEDON

THURROCK 2010

SHOPPING

WORK

LEISURE - WEEKENDS

SOUTHEND

BASILDON

COMMUTING TO LONDON

CONDITIONS OF THE REGION - MOVEMENT OF PEOPLE



PORTRAIT OF THE REGION

PORTRAIT OF THE REGIONPURFLEET

RAINHAM

BARKING

DAGENHAM DOCK

WEST HAM

LIMEHOUSE

FENCHURCH STREET

GRAYS

TILBURY

STANFORD-LE-HOPE

PITSEA

BENFLEETLEIGH-ON-SEA

EAST TILBURY

PORTRAIT OF THE REGION



THE END

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Bauhaus Kolleg XII - Mid Term Presentation