Portland Pipe Co.

Portland Pipe Co. is a workshop that emerged during the interwar period of British pipe production and whose name is today remembered mostly through its stamps. Alongside pipes sold under its own name, it used dozens of separate brand names, some of which continued to appear on the market even after it closed.

Because the records are scattered, no definite documentary chain has been established for its founding year, its owners, or its closing date; the collector literature relies largely on stamps, sales lists, and surviving pipes.

Founding, Location, and Closure

The firm is generally understood to have been founded in the 1930s and to have begun production before the Second World War. Collector records give the legal address as 7-8 Jeffrey's Place, in London's Camden district; this building was also one of Barling's two production facilities and was closed around 1970. Operations are considered to have ended in 1962. Wilczak and Colwell's brand dictionary records Portland as British in origin; against this, there are also records indicating that some pipes carrying the same name were made in Italy. This duality is generally explained by the name having changed hands after the closure.