Fort Dunlop

Fort Dunlop, is the common name of the original tyre factory and main office of Dunlop Rubber in the Erdington district of Birmingham, England. It was established in 1917, and by 1954 the entire factory area employed 10,000 workers. At one time it was the world's largest factory, when it employed 3,200 workers.Fort Dunlop, the main building of the former factory area, is next to the M6 motorway, near to junction 5. It is a Grade A locally listed building. It was designed by Sidney Stott and W. W. Gibbings in the 1920s. The building's use was the storage of tyres and was called Base stores. An almost identical building housing administrative and general offices was located on Wood Lane. Dunlop Tyres now occupies a small part of the building.HistoryThe Dunlop Rubber Co. Ltd was set up in Birmingham in 1901 to manufacture Dunlop tyres, initially for bicycles and later for motor vehicles. The First World War initiated a huge expansion in the demand for solid tyres for lorries, and the Fort Dunlop factory was built in 1916 on a 120-hectare site on the east side of Birmingham. Post-war, the motor industry grew and Dunlop was well placed to supply the demand for tyres. In the 1970s it was still the largest tyre factory outside the United States, however, the increased number of foreign cars imported into Britain led to a decline in demand, the company was sold in the 1980s and large-scale tyre production ceased at Fort Dunlop. Dunlop Tyres continued to produce specialised vintage, motorcycle and motorsport tyres on the site. The factory was to close in September 2014, with production moving to Germany and France.