{"id":938926,"date":"2026-05-05T08:29:22","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T08:29:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/938926\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T08:29:22","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T08:29:22","slug":"how-merseyside-helped-make-the-empire-state-building-and-the-louvre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/938926\/","title":{"rendered":"How Merseyside helped make the Empire State Building and the Louvre"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Merseyside company also helped the production of classic cars from Land Rover and Rolls Royce\"Glass<\/p>\n

Glass used to in the Empire State Building in New York was made in Merseyside(Image: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

A Merseyside factory helped make some of the world’s most famous buildings. In 1826, four local families joined forces to open the St Helens<\/a> Crown Glass Company and it is still going strong 200 years later.<\/p>\n

The business <\/a>was renamed Pilkington Brothers in 1849 <\/a>when William and Richard Pilkington acquired the company<\/a>. This became Pilkington Ltd in 1894. In its lifetime, Pilkington UK has pioneered the development of new processes and technologies that have enabled the manufacture of high-quality glass at an industrial scale.<\/p>\n

Over the years, Pilkington UK<\/a> glass has also been used in iconic cars <\/a>from the Model T Ford to classic British brands like Land Rover, Rolls Royce and Aston Martin. It\u2019s also been used in the world\u2019s best-known buildings, from the Empire State Building in New York<\/a> and the Pyramide du Louvre in Paris to the UK\u2019s tallest building The Shard, London.<\/p>\n

The company went international in 1892, first opening agencies to sell its products in Europe, North America, Australia and beyond, and ultimately opening factories in countries including Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, America and South Africa.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A drawing of the Pilkington glass factory, St Helens, 1879(Image: NSG\/Citypress)<\/p>\n

By the 20th century, Pilkington UK had become a leading force in the global glass industry, and a pivotal moment came in 1959 when Sir Alastair Pilkington invented the float process, where molten glass is floated in a bath of molten tin.<\/p>\n

This transformational innovation meant that, for the first time, large, perfectly flat and clear sheets of glass could be reliably manufactured continually and to a uniform thickness.<\/p>\n

It was an invention that would change glassmaking and modern architecture forever and to this day, float glass is the most widely produced form of glass in the world.<\/p>\n

While also operating factories around the world Pilkington UK says it has always been committed to St Helens, employing more than 11,500 people in the town at its peak.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The float glass team in 1960(Image: NSG\/Citypress)<\/p>\n

In 2006, Pilkington UK became a wholly-owned subsidiary of NSG Group and today it employs around 3,000 people at sites across the UK.<\/p>\n

It has developed a portfolio of products with qualities that the original founders could never have imagined, including Pilkington Activ\u2122, the world\u2019s first self-cleaning glass, Pilkington Suncool\u2122, which reflects solar radiation to help keep buildings cool, and Pilkington K Glass\u2122, which acts as an insulator to help keep buildings warm.<\/p>\n

The company also plans to unveil investments this year at its St Helens base, with new coating technologies aiming to unlock a new generation of architectural glass products.<\/p>\n

Neil Syder, Managing Director of Pilkington UK, said: “To play my small part in the 200-year story of such an historic and iconic British brand is truly a privilege.<\/p>\n

\"Pilkington<\/p>\n

Pilkington UK factory in St Helens(Image: Liverpool Echo)<\/p>\n

“From our home in St Helens, Pilkington UK has made an impact around the world and I\u2019m proud of all of our colleagues, past and present, who have contributed to its amazing story.<\/p>\n

\u201dAnd Pilkington UK continues to play a pioneering role in the global glassmaking industry.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 2025, we completed a multi-million-pound investment in a new sustainable production line at our Greengate Works site, in a move to decarbonise our operations and work towards achieving a 30% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and achieving net zero by 2050. This year we continue to invest in our St Helens coating facilities.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs part of NSG Group, Pilkington UK continues to be a byword for quality and innovation in glassmaking, which has embodied this business since 1826.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Merseyside company also helped the production of classic cars from Land Rover and Rolls Royce Glass used…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":938927,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8815],"tags":[748,51,393,4884,2348,179,8838,2645,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-938926","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-liverpool","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-history","13":"tag-liverpool","14":"tag-nostalgia","15":"tag-st-helens","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116521033624772728","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/938926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=938926"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/938926\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/938927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=938926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=938926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=938926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}