The Benjamin Electric Manufacturing Company was founded Reuben Benjamin in Chicago, Illinois, filing its first patent in 1898. The company opened a base in England, as 
the Benjamin Electric Ltd, in 1908, in Rosebury Avenue, Islington. Bearing in mind that Thomas Alva Edison had only demonstrated the first working lightbulb 29 years previously, it’s fair to suggest that they were at the vanguard of industrial lighting. Benjamin Electric decamped from London, N1, a decade later, when demand outgrew their facilities, to, of all places, London N17: Tottenham, at Brantwood Road, not a vast leap from White Hart Lane.
During the Second World War, despite the factory being bombed, they produced lighting for planes and airstrips. The Brantwood Plant was afterwards rebuilt and expanded, to encompass state-of-the-art laboratory, engineering, administrative and design offices, assembly plant, canteen and social club. By 1960 the company employed 600 people.
They sound like terribly decent chaps, however we at AOL Towers respect them most because their lighting is so darned… classic – and, in this day and age, vintage. Check out these original brass top grey enamel pendants we’ve just had in, complete with manufacturer’s label on each shade. What’s not to adore?
