Putney's Shameful Link with the Post Office Scandal
Fujitsu's contract was inherited from a locally based company
The original ICL headquarters in Putney in the seventies. Picture: Roy Pedlar
January 18, 2024
As a town we must hang our heads in shame. For the Post Office scandal which involves so much of British institutional life starts in Putney. For between 1968-98 the headquarters of ICL, Britain’s then computer giant, were in architect Richard Siefert’s award winning tower blocks on either side of the river. Now it is a Travel Lodge and upmarket apartments.
ICL was set up by amalgamating all the best of the British electronics industry including International Computers and Tabulators, bits of GEC, Ferranti and English Electric. They were put together to compete with IBM and Hewlett Packard. It was the same logic that amalgamated the car industry into British Leyland.
Despite teething problems, bolstered by government contracts (Post Office, Inland Revenue, MOD, Dept of Works) and communist Eastern Europe’s desire to buy non-American computers. it prospered. At one point the company employed 28,000 in 70 countries. In 1976 ICL was awarded the Queens Award for Exports. But competition hit hard as did the switch away from main frames and by 1981 it was making a £18m loss.
New ideas and investors were needed and Japanese industry was in the ascendency. Fujitsu stepped up and by 1990 had a majority stake and in 1998 ICL vacated its Putney headquarters and moved to Bracknell. ICL ceased to exist in 2002. Fujitsu inherited and continues to do so all of ICL’s government contacts and contracts including the Post Office.
As the Putney Society’s History of Putney and Roehampton states,” Both buildings are eminently successful in their present roles, but both are metaphors for the decline and fall of UK’s industrial base.”
And now shame.
Hugh Thompson
Like Reading Articles Like This? Help Us Produce More This site remains committed to providing local community news and public interest journalism. Articles such as the one above are integral to what we do. We aim to feature as much as possible on local societies, charities based in the area, fundraising efforts by residents, community-based initiatives and even helping people find missing pets. We've always done that and won't be changing, in fact we'd like to do more. However, the readership that these stories generates is often below that needed to cover the cost of producing them. Our financial resources are limited and the local media environment is intensely competitive so there is a constraint on what we can do. We are therefore asking our readers to consider offering financial support to these efforts. Any money given will help support community and public interest news and the expansion of our coverage in this area. A suggested monthly payment is £8 but we would be grateful for any amount for instance if you think this site offers the equivalent value of a subscription to a daily printed newspaper you may wish to consider £20 per month. If neither of these amounts is suitable for you then contact info@neighbournet.com and we can set up an alternative. All payments are made through a secure web site. One-off donations are also appreciated. Choose The Amount You Wish To Contribute. If you do support us in this way we'd be interested to hear what kind of articles you would like to see more of on the site – send your suggestions to the editor. For businesses we offer the chance to be a corporate sponsor of community content on the site. For £30 plus VAT per month you will be the designated sponsor of at least one article a month with your logo appearing if supplied. If there is a specific community group or initiative you'd like to support we can make sure your sponsorship is featured on related content for a one off payment of £50 plus VAT. All payments are made through a secure web site. |
