The Hat Factory 65 to 67 Bute Street Luton

The Hat Factory from Guildford Street June 2011

The Hat Factory is an important arts venue in Luton. As the name implies however, for most of its life the building was used for the manufacture of hats. The Rating and Valuation Act 1925 specified that every building and piece of land in the country was to be assessed to determine its rateable value. The valuer visiting the premises [DV1/J2/47] found it owned and occupied by J. K. Connor Limited, straw hat manufacturers. It comprised old and new premises, the new factory, with five floors is, presumably, the building fronting Bute Street today.

The basement of the “Old Factory”, 65-69 Bute Street, measured 14 feet by 10 feet. The ground floor comprised: a drying room measuring 16 feet by 15 feet; an office measuring 16 feet by 15 feet; a block room measuring 22 feet by 32 feet; a finishing room measuring 13 feet 6 inches by 32 feet and a cutting room measuring 7 feet 6 inches by 18 feet. Two five horsepower motors and one 7½ horsepower motor provided power through eighteen feet of 2 inch and eighteen feet of 1½ inch shafting. The first floor contained two shaping rooms measuring 22 feet by 62 feet and 15 feet square respectively. The second floor contained a block room measuring 15 feet by 20 feet and a machine room measuring 22 feet by 63 feet.

The new factory, made of brick with a stone front and of steel construction, had a basement measuring 68 feet by 38 feet. The ground floor contained a showroom in two sections measuring, respectively, 34 feet by 37 feet and 11 feet 6 inches by 18 feet and two offices measuring 11 feet 6 inches by 18 feet and 10 feet by 21 feet. The first floor measured 70 feet by 38 feet as did each of the three floors above.

Directories for Bedfordshire were published every few years from 1839, for example, the beginning of the 20th century has directories for 1903, 1906, 1910 and 1914. Countywide directories ceased to be published during the Second World War, the last for Bedfordshire being in 1940. Bedfordshire and Luton Archives and Records Service has directories just for Luton for 1939, 1950, 1960, 1965, 1968, 1972, 1974 and 1975. The first street numbers in Bute Street begin to appear in directories in 1885.

• 1894: 67 – Liberal Unionist Association, John Crawley, secretary; South Bedfordshire Liberal Unionist Association, John Crawley, secretary and agent;
• 1906: James Higinbotham & Sons, straw and felt hat manufacturers;
• 1910: 65 – James Higinbotham & Sons, straw hat manufacturers; 67 – Bonner & Ward, straw hat manufacturers;
• 1914: 65 – A. & F. Higgins, straw hat manufacturers; 67 – Gaunt & Hudson (Luton) Limited, straw hat manufacturers;
• 1920: 65 – J. & K. Connor Limited, straw hat manufacturers;
• 1924: 65 - J. & K. Connor Limited, straw hat manufacturers;
• 1928: J. & K. Connor Limited, straw hat manufacturers;
• 1931: J. & K. Connor Limited, straw hat manufacturers;
• 1939: vacant;
• 1950: J. & K. Connor Limited;
• 1960: vacant;
• 1965: 65 – James Jameson (Dunluce) Limited, clothing manufacturers; 65/67 – J. Albert & Company Limited, hat manufacturers; Jo’Sella Limited, wholesale milliners (factory);
• 1968: 65 – James Jameson (Dunluce) Limited, clothing manufacturers; 65/67 – J. Albert & Company Limited, hat manufacturers; Jo’Sella Limited, wholesale milliners (factory);
• 1972: 65 – James Jameson (Dunluce) Limited, clothing manufacturers; 65/67 – J. Albert & Company Limited, hat manufacturers; Jo’Sella Limited, wholesale milliners (factory);
• 1974: 65 – James Jameson (Dunluce) Limited, clothing manufacturers; 65/67 – J. Albert & Company Limited, hat manufacturers; Jo’Sella Limited, wholesale milliners (factory);
• 1975: 65 – James Jameson (Dunluce) Limited, clothing manufacturers; 65/67 – Jo’Sella Limited, wholesale milliners (factory).

By 1998 65-67 Bute Street was a new arts and media centre called Artezium; it had still been a hat factory as late as the early 1990s, having last been occupied by a firm called James Egleton Limited [WB/Green7/7/3]. At the time of writing [2011] it is an arts venue called, appropriately, The Hat Factory, which opened in 2003 and provides a mixture of contemporary theatre, dance and music.