Whitechapel Bell Foundry

The Whitechapel Bell Foundry is a bell foundry based in the Whitechapel district of east London. It is Britain’s oldest manufacturing company, having been established in 1570 during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, and has operated continuously since then. The history of the foundry however reaches back to Master Founder Robert Chamberlain in 1420 during the reign of King Henry V.

The foundry’s main business is in church bells and their fittings and accessories, although it also manufactures single tolling bells, carillon bells and handbells.

The foundry has produced a number of famous bells, including the original (1752) Liberty Bell and Big Ben in the Palace of Westminster (both cracked). The latter, at 13 1/2 tons, was cast in 1858 and is the largest bell ever cast at the foundry. Whitechapel also supplied peals of 10 bells for Guildford Cathedral in Surrey, in the years following the Second World War, and for the National Cathedral in Washington DC in 1964.