Wallis, Gilbert & Partners was founded in 1914 by Thomas Wallis (1873-1953) and (?) Gilbert. The identity of Gilbert, who was American and may have been a structural engineer, is not known. From 1917 the firm specialised in industrial buildings, usually constructed of reinforced concrete, many of which were for American clients. The Wallis Gilbert & Partners practice closed in 1939.
In all, the partnership designed over one hundred factory and commercial buildings, primarily between the mid-1920s and late-1930s, notable among which were the Wrigley’s factory, Wembey (1926), the Barker & Dobson factory, Everton (1926), Firestone tyre factory, London (1928), the Pyrene Building, London (1929-30), the Hoover factory, London (1931-38), the Hall & Co. Building, London (1932), Victoria Coach Station, London (1932), the Freeder Brothers factory, Enfield (1938-39), and the Burtons factory in South Yorkshire (1938-39).
Harwood, Elain. Art Deco Britain: Buildings of the Interwar Years. London: Batsford, 2019
Hatherley, Owen. 'Icon of the month: Hoover Building; Architects (1932): Wallis Gilbert & Partners'. Icon no. 131, May 2014, pp. 34-35.
Hitchmough, Wendy. Hoover factory: Wallis Gilbert & Partners. London: Phaidon, 1992
Industrial architecture : Wallis, Gilbert & Partners : Thomas Wallis, Frank Cox, Douglas T. Wallis. Geneva: Biblos, 1932
Skinner, Joan S. Form and fancy - factories and factory buildings by Wallis, Gilbert and Partners, 1916-1939. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1997
Skinner, Joan. ‘The Firestone Factory 1928-1980’ Twentieth Century Architecture. The Journal of the Twentieth Century Society [Industrial Architecture Special Issue] no.1, Summer 1994 pp.12-22
