Crowson & Sons Ltd, 17-23 Farringdon Road, City of London, London EC1, 2004 • Nice mid-century building (note tiny replacement ‘s’ on ‘Sons’) selling fancy cheeses no more; it was knocked down and replaced with a big office block housing a Sainsbury’s Local.
Shopfront Elegy 
Lovely lettering! What a shame the building has gone.
This is lovely, I love buildings like this.
Apparently this wasn’t a cheese shop but a front for MI5. When they knocked down the buding the foundations went very deep. Used to be discussed on the Robert Elms show a lot.
Really? Blimey. They went to a lot of trouble with the actual front, anyway.
This is a joke! This was our company and the basement went deep and under the road because it was a cold store for cheese.
Yes, I have read elsewhere that it is an urban myth. Quite a good one, though.
HI THERE MRS O’HALLORAN. I AM ASSUMING THAT YOU ARE PATS WIFE ? MY NAME IS STEVE WOOD AND I WORKED AT THE CHELTENHAM DEPOT , UNDER KEVIN DOHERTY MANY YEARS AGO. I HAVE A COLLECTION OF CLASSIC VEHICLES AND HAVE BEEN ON THE HUNT FOR AN OLD FORD “A” OR “D” SERIES, BEDFORD TK 1970’S/80’S ORANGE CROWSONS LORRY TO RESTORE , AND ADD TO MY CLASSIC VEHICLE COLLECTION. I KNOW ITS A “LONG SHOT” BUT WONDERED IF BUY ANY CHANCE YOU KNEW/KNOW AS TO WHERE/WHO THE VEHICLES WERE TAKEN TOO, WHEN THE LEASE’S EXPIRED AND WERE REPLACED WITH NEW VEHICLES.ANY INFO/DETAILS WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED, SHOULD YOU HAVE ANY. MANY THANKS . STEVE WOOD . 07748 030 291.
Hello Steve. FYI we have also forwarded your message on to Mrs O’Halloran via email, including your email address, which we cannot show here. So if it reaches her and she wishes to respond, she can contact you directly.
My name is William, I’m 68 and from Scotland, I worked as a porter here, making up orders for shops and hotels in the West End, in 1971,as you so rightly say the cold room was in the basement, and on the 1st floor they kept the Quails eggs in distilled water, I can remember a delivery coming in from Italy and there were giant wheels of Parmesan, that had to be cut using a big electric saw, some of the cheeses I remember are Rambolatan, and Roquefort with red wine, and there was an Italian cheese covered in grape seeds, and a fav of mine Royal Camembert, and Blue Stilton, and there was a really fancy looking cheese that resembled a gateau, if my ageing memory serves me well, it was cal Le.Rambol,
Fond memories indeed
Thank you for your wonderful comments – so glad you found this post and added your own bit of history. You paint a very vivid picture, I would not have realised it was such an upmarket supplier. A very fine building and clearly not the spy outpost that urban legend suggests.
That’s what a spy would say…
How is Pat I no him from working at crowsons in Cheltenham depot Barry Morse
HI VIKI. THATS GREAT. MANY THANKS. ALL THE BEST. STEVE WOOD.
Hello
me again, I misspelt Rambolitain, which sprang to mind afterwards, it was a cream cheese with walnuts, another cheese was one covered in vine leaves, the cheese that resembled the gateau was made up of 3 or 4 cream cheeses, and was very expensive at the time, and again if my ageing memory serves me well, it was around £3. 50p a lb we had just changed to decimals in Feb, but getting back to the Giant wheels of parmesan they were around 100cm in dia and so hard, they were delivered at the back and came down a roller gangway, the saw resembled a big hacksaw, on the first floor they also stocked snails, in tins and the shells came in a tube and you had to fill them yourself, well the customer did,
I worked for crowsons for 10years at the Cheltenham depot with Mike buckland manager it was a really great pleasure to work there unfortunately the company was sold to bfd which we said was a very bad move eventually bfd destroyed the company with their bad debts Barry Morse
Hi My name is Beryl Hall and I worked at Crowson’s Farringdon road for 5 years. I was in the offices above the warehouse and also on the switchboard at ground level. I worked with Pat O’Halloran and Mr Coyne the company secretary.
Thanks for your comment!
Hi me again Beryl Hall got my dates mixed (that’s age for you LOL) I worked there from 1970 through to 1978. How is Pat?
Hello everyone,
My father, George Moore, worked at Crowsons warehouse for 41 years. He took me to the Food Fair at Olympia where Crowsons had a stall and showed me a special cheese used for the show. It was long and round and when you cut through it there was butter in the centre. I’ve never forgotten it. When he moved to Kent they gave him a new job as a rep. Unfotunately, he was killed in a car crash while taking his orders to London because of the postal strike in February 1970.
Thank you so much for this bittersweet memory. I am so sorry to hear about your father, what a terrible thing to happen. So by my reckoning he had worked there since about 1929?
Does anyone who worked there know anything about the origins of the Crowson firm? There is a family legend that we are related through a common ancestor in the 1840s but don’t know anything more.
Thank you for your comments – it was a long time ago – I still have a small earthenware jar which contained white stilton and it has Crowson and Son on it. Not valuable but a sentimental treasure! Best wishes.
Well I’m glad you found the photo. Sad that the building went.
i worked for Crowsons Cheese in Cheltenham for 10 years i enjoyed working for them until it when busts thanks to bfd
Hi my name is Matthew bostock I worked at crowson’s kearsley near Bolton for 21years our depot manager was cycril cavey I remember p o’halloran ,Ziggy kopel and Paul gimllet
Hi Matthew hope you and your family are safe and well its barry from the cheltenham depot I use to visit you on a Tuesday on the way up to east kilbride
Lovely reading these memories of Crowson. I worked there for a short while 72-74. Remember the manager Mr Loader and a guy called Blue (always had a Rothmans cigarette hanging out he’s mouth) yep even working in a food factory. I worked on ground floor putting orders together for shops and restaurants, remember in summer sitting on the flat roof sunbathing.
A date that sticks in my mind is 8th March 1973 for a couple of reasons, one it was my mums birthday but also I’d dislocated my finger at work and was going to St Barts for a X-ray and was only 500 yards from the Old Bailey when the car bomb went off, never heard a sound or noise like it since.
Another memory is the lovely cafe round the corner that served superb sandwiches and lunches.
Thanks for sharing. That’s an amazing story.
I was a customer of Crowsons at Saffron Hill in the 1970’s,Tony Mortimer was the sales manager and Lionel Barrow a director, a great company to deal with.