The History
The Headquarters of the Ford Motor Company are located on the site of the old Warley regimental depot and barracks.
Most of the barracks have long been demolished and only the chapel, the officers' mess (now Marillac Nursing Home) and one of the regimental gyms (Keys Hall) remain.
The Central Office was purpose-built for Ford in the early 1960s, a “replica” of Ford’s world headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan
The first employees moved in from August 1964. Many moved from the company's previous UK main office fronting the River Thames on Ford's Dagenham estate. All Ford of Britain directors and some European directors were based at Central Office, including Chairman Andy Barratt.
In 2018 car giant Ford announced it was set to close down its Ford UK headquarters in Brentwood - the centre of its operations for more than 50 years.
The proposal, which was subject to relevant board approvals and local authority reviews, intended to bring together all of the company’s main UK-based office activities in the Dunton Technical Centre and the Dagenham Diesel Centre by the end of September 2019.
The proposed changes include moving the company’s headquarter and credit operations, based in Warley since 1964, to Dunton.
Warley Central Office was also headquarters of Ford Credit Europe, employing around 830 people, providing financing for customers of the company's brands.
At the time a spokesman for Ford said: “As part of an effort to improve our business fitness, we are entering a period of consultation with our union colleagues on a proposal to consolidate our South East Essex office facilities.
On 12 August 2019, After 55 years in its US-styled offices at Warley, the Ford of Britain press office starts a new era at the company’s Dunton Technical Centre near Basildon. The team will be co-located alongside Ford of Britain Marketing, Sales and Service colleagues in the centres V-Building. Press officers and support will be together with all external communicators including marketers, customer advisers, fleet sales and service teams.
The future of the building at Warley is housing as with so many of the old building we explore.
The Explore
Now let’s get to the juicy bits!
A few of us have had this on our radar since the closure was announced in 2018. I’ve done various reccies and visits to see what’s what and back in December 2019 myself and @UrbanDuck managed a brief visit and ended up on the roof of the lower bits and managed to evade the security located inside. However after a few damp hours, we left frustrated at not being able to get inside ourselves.
Fast forward to March 2020 and after a lot of WhatsApp chatter with @UrbanDuck and along with a new recruit, the suitably named @H.Ford we scoped it out again and managed to get into the buildings…
@H.Ford chose a great cherry breaking first explore to accompany us along on.
I cannot begin to explain how vast this place is, that big that I went back again with @Ojay and @Seffy a few days later to get some daytime pictures…
Right where do I start, sorry for the pic overload but you know how it is with these places.
As I posted in the history part, Fords Warley offices are a loose replica of the Ford’s world headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan. It’s a huge imposing building of epic proportions.
Once inside we moved from floor to floor, most of the floors have undergone a heavy strip although every now and then a few gems appeared.
Those marble entrance halls must have been pretty special back in the day.
Come on who doesn’t love a roof top. The roof here was always going to be special, the views over London and Kent are pretty special.
At one point you can see both the Dartford Bridge and Canary Wharf at the same time.
The Headquarters of the Ford Motor Company are located on the site of the old Warley regimental depot and barracks.
Most of the barracks have long been demolished and only the chapel, the officers' mess (now Marillac Nursing Home) and one of the regimental gyms (Keys Hall) remain.
The Central Office was purpose-built for Ford in the early 1960s, a “replica” of Ford’s world headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan
The first employees moved in from August 1964. Many moved from the company's previous UK main office fronting the River Thames on Ford's Dagenham estate. All Ford of Britain directors and some European directors were based at Central Office, including Chairman Andy Barratt.
In 2018 car giant Ford announced it was set to close down its Ford UK headquarters in Brentwood - the centre of its operations for more than 50 years.
The proposal, which was subject to relevant board approvals and local authority reviews, intended to bring together all of the company’s main UK-based office activities in the Dunton Technical Centre and the Dagenham Diesel Centre by the end of September 2019.
The proposed changes include moving the company’s headquarter and credit operations, based in Warley since 1964, to Dunton.
Warley Central Office was also headquarters of Ford Credit Europe, employing around 830 people, providing financing for customers of the company's brands.
At the time a spokesman for Ford said: “As part of an effort to improve our business fitness, we are entering a period of consultation with our union colleagues on a proposal to consolidate our South East Essex office facilities.
On 12 August 2019, After 55 years in its US-styled offices at Warley, the Ford of Britain press office starts a new era at the company’s Dunton Technical Centre near Basildon. The team will be co-located alongside Ford of Britain Marketing, Sales and Service colleagues in the centres V-Building. Press officers and support will be together with all external communicators including marketers, customer advisers, fleet sales and service teams.
The future of the building at Warley is housing as with so many of the old building we explore.
The Explore
Now let’s get to the juicy bits!
A few of us have had this on our radar since the closure was announced in 2018. I’ve done various reccies and visits to see what’s what and back in December 2019 myself and @UrbanDuck managed a brief visit and ended up on the roof of the lower bits and managed to evade the security located inside. However after a few damp hours, we left frustrated at not being able to get inside ourselves.
Fast forward to March 2020 and after a lot of WhatsApp chatter with @UrbanDuck and along with a new recruit, the suitably named @H.Ford we scoped it out again and managed to get into the buildings…
@H.Ford chose a great cherry breaking first explore to accompany us along on.
I cannot begin to explain how vast this place is, that big that I went back again with @Ojay and @Seffy a few days later to get some daytime pictures…
Right where do I start, sorry for the pic overload but you know how it is with these places.
As I posted in the history part, Fords Warley offices are a loose replica of the Ford’s world headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan. It’s a huge imposing building of epic proportions.
Once inside we moved from floor to floor, most of the floors have undergone a heavy strip although every now and then a few gems appeared.
Those marble entrance halls must have been pretty special back in the day.
Come on who doesn’t love a roof top. The roof here was always going to be special, the views over London and Kent are pretty special.
At one point you can see both the Dartford Bridge and Canary Wharf at the same time.
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