EXTRACT FROM THE MARYLEBONE JOURNAL – SPRING 2005The Locksmith

“Joseph Bramah (1749 – 1814) was one of the great inventors of the Industrial Revolution. The Yorkshireman walked 170 miles to London to seek fortune, and was the man responsible for the flushing toilet, the beer pump, the hydraulic press, and the Bank of England’s bank banknote printing machine. Perhaps most famously, he also invented the ‘unpickable’ cryptic safety lock. He left quite a legacy. (In Yorkshire, people still refer to a beautiful piece of machinery as being ‘a real Bramah’.)
Amazingly, today you can still buy a Bramah lock from a Bramah : Jeremy Bramah, a descendent of Joseph, owns Bramah Security Equipment, based in Oldbury Place just off High Street. Needs must, and this Bramah has branched into alarms, CCTV, as well as window and door security bolts as well as, naturally; the famous Bramah locks.
Although the former warehouse inOldbury Place has been operational for nearly 100 years, in the early days of the firm the Bramah headquarters moved around the West End. When Joseph was granted a patent for hos lock in August 1784 he set up the Bramah Lock Company at Denmark Street, quickly moving to premises at 124 Piccadilly. Joseph’s sons Timothy, Francis and Edward all had a hand in the business, which was sold on in 1860. It eventually returned to a member of the Bramah clan in 1966, when Jeremy’s father Gordon bought it. Jeremy took over the reins in 1986.”

BRAMAH SECURITY EQUIPMENT
31 OLDBURY PLACE