The history of Luxcrete Ltd can be traced back to the time when pavement lights were first introduced to the streets of London in the late 1880’s, although the company’s current name was created as recently as 1967.
When cast iron frame pavement lights were introduced into London in the 1880’s, they were first glazed with cut squares of glass and later with pressed glass lenses. The British Luxfer Prism Syndicate Limited, was established in 1898 under licence from the Luxfer company of north America which itself was established by a British inventor James Pennycuick who had filed a U.S. patent in 1882. The name ‘Luxfer’ is taken from the Latin Lux for light and ferre, meaning to carry. The Chicago based Luxfer company at one point retained the services of the young Frank Lloyd Wright to design various glass prisms.
Cast iron frames were eventually superseded by reinforced concrete frames glazed with 100 x 100 x 22mm pressed glass lenses. The first practical development in glass and concrete construction may be attributed to Freidrich L. Keppler, founder and manager of Deutsche Luxfer Prismen-Gesellschaft.
Since then technological developments in concrete construction have led to the use of glass in concrete in a much wider range of products than pavement lights. Smoke outlet panels with or without glass lenses, Floor Lights, Roof Lights, Security windows, Police cell windows etc are all derivatives of the original pavement light concept.
The company’s current name was created in 1967 when the concrete and glass division of Lenscrete was acquired by Luxfer Pavement Lights Ltd. Luxcrete also acquired J.A. King (Glasscrete) in 1973 and John Healey (London) Ltd in 1986. The company is a privately owned business acquired by the current Directors in 2013. Our offices and pre cast production factory are based in Luton, Bedfordshire.
