CARRERAS BLACK CAT FACTORY ARCHITECTURE: COLLINS, COLLINS & PORRI AND LONDON'S EGYPTIAN REVIVAL LANDMARK

The Carreras Black Cat Factory is one of London's most theatrical pieces of industrial architecture — a vast, gleaming white Egyptian Revival building completed in 1928 for the Carreras Tobacco Company, designed by architects M. E. Collins, O. H. Collins, and consulting architect A. G. Porri. Its entrance is flanked by two enormous bronze statues of the cat-goddess Bastet, and its facade was originally covered in painted hieroglyphics, sun-discs, and papyrus-form columns — the most complete expression of the Egyptomania that swept design and popular culture after the 1922 discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb.

It belongs to the flamboyant, brand-driven end of the interwar Art Deco movement, when British manufacturers used architecture itself as advertising, building factories designed to be recognised and remembered as much as occupied.

The Carreras Black Cat Factory, now known as Greater London House, is Grade II listed and remains in use as office space today.

  • Written by Gavin Paisley, director & model-maker at Chisel & Mouse based in Sussex, England.
  • Last updated: 17-Sep-26

Photograph by Tony Hisgett, licensed under CC A 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

Carreras Black Cat Factory facade architectural scale model

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What is the Carreras Black Cat Factory?

The Carreras Black Cat Factory — officially the Arcadia Works, and known today as Greater London House — is a large Egyptian Revival Art Deco building at 180 Hampstead Road in Camden, standing directly opposite Mornington Crescent Underground station. It was built between 1926 and 1928 for the Carreras Tobacco Company, whose chairman, the philanthropist Bernhard Baron, commissioned a purpose-built home for the firm's famous Black Cat and Craven A cigarette brands. At 550 feet (168 metres) long, with a central block of thirteen bays flanked by two lower eight-bay wings, it was at the time the largest reinforced-concrete factory in Britain.

The building ceased cigarette production in 1959 and was converted into offices in the early 1960s, a conversion that stripped away most of its Egyptian ornament. A major restoration in the late 1990s reversed that loss, reinstating the building's original character, including new casts of the famous black cat statues. Today it houses office tenants including ASOS and the British Heart Foundation.

Facts panel

Former cigarette factory (now offices), Camden, London.

  • Architects: M. E. Collins and O. H. Collins, with A. G. Porri as consulting architect
  • Built for: Carreras Tobacco Company (chairman Bernhard Baron)
  • Constructed: 1926–1928
  • Address: 180 Hampstead Road, Camden, London NW1 7AW
  • Materials: Pre-stressed reinforced concrete frame, painted render, bronze statuary
  • Architectural style: Egyptian Revival Art Deco
  • Length: 550 ft (168 m)
  • Current use: Offices (Greater London House)
  • Designation: Grade II listed

Architects: Collins, Collins & Porri

Marcus Evelyn Collins and Owen Hyman Collins were architect brothers who, together with consulting architect Arthur George Porri (1877–1962), designed the Carreras factory for a client determined to make an unmistakable architectural statement. The Egyptian theme was very much of its moment: Howard Carter's 1922 discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb had triggered a wave of Egyptomania across design, film, and popular culture, reinforced by displays at the 1925 Paris Exhibition and by the Egyptian antiquities on show at the British Museum, from which the architects drew direct inspiration.

Beyond its ornament, the building was also a genuine feat of engineering: it used pre-stressed concrete construction, making it the largest reinforced-concrete factory in Britain at the time, and it was among the first buildings in the country to be fitted with air conditioning and dust-extraction systems — publicised by Carreras as "London's Most Hygienic Tobacco Factory."

Architectural character: hieroglyphics, sun-discs, and a pair of giant cats

The Carreras factory's central block, thirteen bays wide, is flanked by two lower eight-bay wings, the whole composition rendered in brilliant white and originally painted to imitate desert sand. The entrance is dominated by two colossal bronze statues, each eight and a half feet tall, of the cat-goddess Bastet — a direct nod to the Black Cat brand the factory was built to produce. Above the doorway, a carved winged sun-disc represents the god Ra, flanked originally by cow-horned lamps referencing the goddess Hathor; papyrus-form columns, serpent-motif handrails, and richly coloured hieroglyphic detailing carried the Egyptian theme through the building's public-facing surfaces.

Much of this ornament was stripped away when the building became offices in the early 1960s, but a restoration at the turn of the millennium — led by architects Finch Forman working from the original drawings — recovered somewhere between 80 and 90 percent of the original Art Deco detailing, including new bronze casts of the black cats, which stand guard at the entrance once again.

Our architectural sculpture focuses on the central entrance bay, with its flanking cat statues and columns, rather than the building's full 550-foot frontage.

Photograph by Reading Tom, licensed under CC A 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

History: from tobacco shop to Egyptian temple

Carreras began as a small tobacco business founded by Don José Carreras Ferrer, trading from shops around Leicester Square and Regent Street; a black cat that took to sleeping in a shop window gave the company its enduring brand. By the 1920s, the firm had outgrown its earlier City Road premises, and under the chairmanship of Bernhard Baron it commissioned a purpose-built factory on Hampstead Road, opposite Mornington Crescent, completed in 1928. The opening was marked with suitable theatre — the pavements outside were covered in sand to evoke the deserts of Egypt, and actors in ancient Egyptian costume performed alongside cast members from a contemporary production of Verdi's Aida.

The factory operated until 1959, when Carreras merged with Rothmans and production moved to Basildon. The building was converted into offices in the early 1960s, and in that conversion, much of its Egyptian ornamentation was removed — the black cat statues among the casualties. New ownership in 1996 brought a thorough restoration, returning the building's Egyptian detailing and giving it its current name, Greater London House. It has since become one of London's most recognisable examples of interwar industrial architecture, and is Grade II listed today.

Cultural significance

The Carreras factory represents Art Deco architecture at its most unapologetically theatrical — a building conceived as advertising as much as workplace, using the glamour of ancient Egypt to sell a very modern product. Its survival and restoration are a reminder of how close such buildings came to being lost altogether during the plainer commercial redevelopments of the mid-twentieth century, and its two black cats, recast and reinstated, remain one of the most photographed pieces of street furniture in Camden — a lasting monument to a marketing decision made almost a century ago.

The model-maker's lens

  • Focus — the central entrance bay, with its flanking bronze cat statues, papyrus-form columns, and painted Egyptian detailing; this is the building's most recognisable feature, rather than its full 550-foot frontage.
  • Detail — the etched-metal detailing picks out the fine lines of the columns and lettering against the plaster, echoing the building's crisp, painted ornament.
  • How it reads at small scale — very well; the strong symmetry of the entrance and the two flanking cats translate naturally into a compact, sculptural object.
  • How to display — alongside our other Art Deco models — Broadcasting House, the Hoover Building, Battersea Power Station — as part of a collection tracing the style's flamboyant British moment; or beside our Mornington Crescent Station model, its neighbour across the road in Camden.
  • How we made it — we created the CAD model from photographs, 3D printed the master pattern, created a single simple box mould, cast in pigmented white plaster and added etched metal detailing.

View the Carreras Black Cat Factory architectural model

Visiting the Carreras Black Cat Factory

The building stands at 180 Hampstead Road in Camden, directly opposite Mornington Crescent Underground station, making the two landmarks an easy pairing on a single visit. The entrance and its flanking cat statues are best appreciated from across Hampstead Road, where the full symmetry of the composition can be taken in at once. As an occupied office building, the interior is not generally open to the public, but the facade can be viewed from the street at any time.

Frequently asked questions about the Carreras Black Cat Factory

Who designed the Carreras Black Cat Factory?

It was designed by architects M. E. Collins and O. H. Collins, with A. G. Porri as consulting architect, and completed in 1928 for the Carreras Tobacco Company.

When was the Carreras Black Cat Factory built?

It was constructed between 1926 and 1928, on the site of a communal garden at Mornington Crescent in Camden.

Why does the Carreras Black Cat Factory look Egyptian?

Its design was directly inspired by the wave of Egyptomania that followed Howard Carter's 1922 discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb, reinforced by Egyptian displays at the 1925 Paris Exhibition and the British Museum. The theme also tied neatly to Carreras's Black Cat cigarette brand, referencing the Egyptian cat-goddess Bastet.

Is the Carreras Black Cat Factory a listed building?

Yes. It is Grade II listed, and now trades under the name Greater London House.

Are the black cat statues original?

No. The originals were removed when the building was converted into offices in the early 1960s. New bronze casts were installed during a restoration in the late 1990s, which also recovered most of the building's other lost Egyptian detailing.

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