Cambridge 2000: Chesterton Road: Henry Giles House, Department of Social Security

Description: Chesterton Road: Henry Giles House, Department of Social Security
Date built: 1957-1961
Architect: Edward D. Mills and Partners
Chesterton Road: Henry Giles House, Department of Social Security (Edward D. Mills and Partners) map for Chesterton Road: Henry Giles House, Department of Social Security
Date photograph taken: 04 Mar 2000 (Alternative map: Google map)

This was one of the first purpose-built hi-tech buildings in the city. It was originally occupied by Cambridge Scientific Instruments (now part of Leica Microsystems). It is currently occupied by the Department of Social Security, renamed (rebranded) by the government in 2001 as the Department for Working and Pensions.

This particular building was first planned in 1944, but in the usual Cambridge way it took over ten years to be given planning permission. The block at the front opened in 1959 and the block at the side along Carlyle Road is a later extension.

Cambridge Scientific Instruments was itself the descendant (through various mergers and takeovers) of one of the first Cambridge hi-tech companies, the Cambridge Scientific Instrument Company. The latter was founded by Horace Darwin (the youngest surviving son of Charles Darwin) and Albert George Dew-Smith in 1881 in premises on Panton Street (occupying premises from an earlier business of Dew-Smith and Robert Fulcher, started in 1879).

As might be expected, the Cambridge Scientific Instrument Company had many employees who went on to found their own significant companies in Cambridge. For example, William T. Pye was one of the original employees, and in 1898 he left to set up a company with his son W.G. Pye called the W.G. Pye Instrument Company whose later descendants included Pye Radio and Pye Telecommunications.

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