Location original EMS headquarters

[Graham Hinton]

Since there is a thread on B&A location I thought you might like to see EMS' locations in the late '70s.

This was the headquarters, currently on the market at £5M:



The EMS office was in an attic room and the "R&D dept" was in a 12'x12' chipboard box in some run down stables around the back.
Meanwhile the products were made in this dump:

[Licudi]

Is that Faringdon House in the pictures? I can't tell from this profile:

https://www.houseandgarden.co.uk/galler ... gdon-house

[Graham Hinton]

Is that Faringdon House in the pictures? I can't tell from this profile:

No. You can tell by the windows, completely different shapes and centuries apart.
This is in Great Milton, Sofka lived here as a teenager.

[Licudi]

Ah, thanks - interesting family.

Is there a decent EMS history anywhere? The recent Electronic Sound cover story was poor.

[Graham Hinton]

Is there a decent EMS history anywhere?

No. Most of the magazine articles have been slapped together by hack journalists with no knowledge of the company and are full of "alternative facts" plucked from thin air, or in Gordon Reid's article just downright lies.

The only thing relevant to EMS in the Farringdon House page is the Cecil Beaton picture with Jennifer Fry (as in Fry's Turkish Delight) and the baby, Victoria, who was to grow up to give Peter Zinovieff £250k to start EMS ("Oh, darling, why don't you have a little company?"). He then squandered it and went bankrupt ten years later.

[PacificState]

Thanks for this - I used to pass by on my way to the M40 when I was driving over from Oxford (incidentally working with Billo Kentish - was he there at that point?) and always wondered!

[Graham Hinton]

Billo Kentish - was he there at that point?

No, just Robin Wood. Funnily enough, I didn't meet Billo until in the '80s when he came to work at Solid State Logic.

[Portabella]

great! thanks for sharing it

.. and what a beautiful house. OMG ! If I only had 5mio quid now

[momo]

Worth the £5M for that Wisteria alone!

[Graham Hinton]

.. and what a beautiful house. OMG ! If I only had 5mio quid now

The estate agent's brochure says that you can get a mortgage for "only £14k pcm". It was a beautiful house, but it has been over done up now with a tennis court, heated outdoor swimming pool and a lake where there was a duck pond.
EMS rented it for £40 pcm when I paid more for a damp two room basement flat in Oxford.

[metasonix]

Most of the magazine articles have been slapped together by hack journalists with no knowledge of the company and are full of "alternative facts" plucked from thin air, or in Gordon Reid's article just downright lies.

Heh. In the case of Gordon Reid, double heh.

The only thing relevant to EMS in the Farringdon House page is the Cecil Beaton picture with Jennifer Fry (as in Fry's Turkish Delight) and the baby, Victoria, who was to grow up to give Peter Zinovieff £250k to start EMS ("Oh, darling, why don't you have a little company?"). He then squandered it and went bankrupt ten years later.

Times story, with the photo:
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/my-c ... -vbtlqrp2d

As usual, the Wikipedia article about EMS isn't very good and has very little about the company's weird/colorful history. But it does go on about Zinovieff's connections to Doctor Who, because Wiki-Fools just love them some Who. According to Wikipedia, Doctor Who was the Greatest Television Show Ever Made. Literally. The Radiophonic Workshop articles have the same Whovie nerd fanaticism.

[beyourdog]