Belling Baby Boom

It is not the most fashionable of brand names but Belling has proven over the last 105 years to be innovative and above all the producer of sturdy and reliable products for heating and cooking.

I thought I had better do some research into one of their electric appliances that I came across in a 1935 built house just today.

The house, a traditional brick and whitewash rendered semi detached had been occupied by the same couple since 1953.

In a property of that quality born from age and style there is no real compulsion to modernise just for the sake of it.

In fact, many who ripped out the authentic innards of similar inter-war houses are regretting it now and spend hours scouring the on line salerooms and portals for retro and vintage fittings for them to be put back in all their splendour.

The Belling business was started in Enfield, Middlesex manufacturing electric heaters.

Belling revolutionised electric fire design with the creation of the Firebar in 1912 and was soon supporting the 1914-1918 war effort by producing heating equipment for submarines. .

In 1913 additional factory space at Edmonton allowed the product line to be expanded to include electric water heaters (1913) electric cookers (1919) and immersion heaters (1920).

The 1920s, a period of increased home ownership was the catalyst for rapid expansion with a move to a 24,000 sq ft premises in Enfield and the launch of the legendary Baby Belling cooker.

I expect that a good proportion of households in the UK in the inter war period at one time relied upon a Baby Belling in the kitchen or scullery.

In 1931 Belling launched the first 100 per cent enamelled cooker onto the market, unveiled the new and improved No.40 Baby Belling Cooker and became the first manufacturer to introduce glass doors to its ovens. They were well ahead of their time and the competition.

The Belling contribution to the war effort from 1939 was temporarily to produce rifle grenades, incendiary bomb snuffers and multiple rocket guns on the cooker production lines.

Back into consumer production in the booming post war era the Belling 'Forty-seven' was Britain's most popular cooker.

Economic, political and monetary  difficulties in the 1970's made for uncertain trading conditions including power cuts and the imposition of the three day week.  Belling continued to innovate, unveiling the cooking sector's most important launch of the decade at the Electricity Council's Electric Living Exhibition – the first domestic fan oven - the 'Classic Double Extra'

The 1980s, a period of relative stability and in some parts of society, increasing affluence saw yet another UK first in the form of the first slot-in cooker – the Belling Format 600X Cook Centre. It was the first cooker to fit flush with kitchen cupboards.

In 1992 Belling was acquired by the Glen Dimplex Group; a leading worldwide manufacturer of heating and domestic appliances including Dimplex, Stoves, Roberts Radio and Morphy-Richards.

As part of this auspicious history my discovery today will have played a minor but still important part although I have never actually seen one of them in all of my thirty years of work.

The on switch for the electrical power is a wonderfully clunky thing, the sort of mechanism that would get a small child into trouble from the constant desire to just flick it on and off for fun.

The metal casing is in a brushed steel finish giving a very utilitarian and industrial feel.

The electric elements hidden inside are the type that you just know will smell awful upon first switch on as accumulated dust and small insects incinerate.

The grilles are again stylish in their pure functional form.

The whole unit is compact as you can see from the airing cupboard doors on the right of picture.

An electrical cable runs off to a plug somewhere in the house.

This heater was fitted in the smallest bedroom at the back of the house and will have been essential in the pre-central heating era as the room had three external walls of solid brickwork to leach away any warmth rapidly.

It is quite remarkable that a company in a such a competitive sector as consumer goods survived to reach its centenary in 2012 and is still going strong as part of its parent organisation today.