So I saw a dome and got a bit snap happy! easily one of the prettiest staircases I’ve come across so far…
This place used to be in pharmaceutical production, with the rest of the buildings demolished this section i believe to have been the main building is listed and is in a sorry state if it were to be saved.
The business was established by Edward Packard, one of the first to manufacture superphosphate derived from coprolites, in 1843.In 1863 he was joined in business by his son, also named Edward, who was instrumental in developing the business and rationalising the United Kingdom’s fertiliser industry. The business was incorporated in 1895 under the name of Edward Packard and Company Limited.
In 1919 it bought a fertiliser business founded by James Fison of Thetford in 1808 and in 1929 the parent company’s name was changed to Packard and James Fison (Thetford) Limited to reflect the acquisition.
In the early 1980s the Company decided to focus on pharmaceutical products and its fertiliser activities were sold to Norsk Hydro in 1982.Many years of successful growth were financed by sales of sodium cromoglycate in a variety of formulations used to treat asthma and allergies of the eye among several disease areas. However, the loss of lucrative product licences for Opticrom and Imferon in the USA in 1991and the failure of clinical trials for Tipredane, an asthma drug, in 1993[revealed bleak prospects for the business.In early 1995 the instruments Division was sold to US Thermo Instrument Systems while the Research and Development facilities in Loughborough and Rochester, New York with their pipelines were acquired by the Swedish company Astra AB.
In late 1995 Fisons was acquired by the United States-based Rhone-Poulenc Rorer, Inc., which in turn was wholly owned by France’s chemical giant Rhone-Poulenc S.A.The Company was based in Ipswich with Pharmaceutical Research and Development in Loughborough, United Kingdom and Rochester, New York, USA, and manufacturing in Holmes Chapel Cheshire and northern France.