Bank note and playing card company Thomas De La Rue entered into plastics around 1913

Thomas De La Rue company took over the Shernhall Street premises of ‘Pluton Manufacturing Company’ after it closed in 1912, and by the 1930s was well-established making a wide range of moulded plastics products, including stylish ‘Enduraware’ home products.

It was known for its pioneering development of laminate plastics – known as formica – in the 1930s, which went on to become a staple kitchen surface in the 1950s.

As the business grew the company expanded, building a new factory on Walthamstow Avenue by 1937.

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