Description and History of Site:-
Now mostly a car park. In the 1830s-1840s, Joseph Watson, hide and skin dealer, supplied Leeds' leather industry. The manufacture of tallow, candles, grease and soap was developed to use by-products of this trade. A new factory in Whitehall Road was purchased in 1861 and initially used for the handling of the hides and skins.

By the latter part of the C19, the leather trade was becoming rather uncertain while the demand for soap and other cleaning products was expanding rapidly. So in the 1880's, Charles and George Watson, sons of the founder who died in 1873, increasingly concentrated on the soap industry. In 1906 the company's leading brands included multi-purpose household soaps 'Matchless Cleanser', 'Venus', 'Nubolic' disinfectant soap and 'Sparkla' for polishing and scouring.

By 1911 the company had sold off the hide and skin business altogether. On the retirement of Joseph Watson in 1917 the whole of the company was acquired by Lever Brothers to later become part of Unilever in 1929. During the 1930s Unilever's household soap production was based at the Whitehall works which later became the centre of development for soapless shampoo and shampoo powders. Toothpaste production and packaging began at the factory in 1940 or 1941, at which time the company took over the manufacture of SR toothpaste for D&W Gibbs. Following the Second World War, Unilever soap production was transferred to Port Sunlight and the Whitehall Road works ceased production of soap products in 1952.

In 1963, Joseph Watson and Sons was integrated with two of Unilever's other companies; Gibbs Ltd and Pepsodent Ltd. The Whitehall Road factory continued manufacturing operations until the gates were finally closed in November 1987

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Key Words :- soap detergent toothpaste

Address :- Whitehall Road, Leeds, West Yorkshire, LS1 4AW
Grid Ref :- SE 2945 3325
Co-ordinates :- Lat 53.794732 , Long -1.554411
Local Authority :- Leeds Council
Pre 1974 County :- Yorkshire - West Riding
Site Status :- Site demolished or no longer extant
Site Condition :- Site redeveloped to industrial / commercial use
Site Dates :- 1861 - 1987
Record Date :- 19 September 2019

Copyright :- cc-by-nc-sa 4.0 © Nick Nelson