There are still eight weeks to Remembrance Sunday so you probably aren't thinking about poppies right now. But they don't just magically appear at the end of October, they're manufactured all year round and where that happens is The Poppy Factory on the Petersham Road below Richmond Hill. Just look for the poppy-themed pedestrian crossing.
There been a poppy factory in Richmond since 1926, the annual sale having proved so popular that much larger premises were needed. The site of a former brewery was taken over and an assembly line established, a big improvement on the previous shirt collar factory down the Old Kent Road. All the workers were disabled armed forces veterans, greatly appreciative of gainful employment, a focus which continues to this day while fulfilling the annual contract for the Royal British Legion.
The current Art Deco factory building was completed in 1933, and joined up more recently to a visitor centre and cafe space out front. Group visits are encouraged and occasional open days held, but for Open House anyone could walk in off the street (Tuesday only) and get deeper into the factory than anyone normally gets. [3d tour]
Just inside the door is a reception desk and gift shop with far nicer mementoes than you might find elsewhere. Think mugs, jugs and garden ornaments, not plastic tags that dangle off the zip on your anorak. There's also a presentation area with seats for 30-odd, although the 'video' appeared to be a succession of informative slides so I didn't sit down and watch all the way through.
Then the wreaths start. The Richmond factory majors in wreath-making, assembling over 75,000 a year, including those for military organisations and the wreaths the Royal family lay at the Cenotaph each year. Several examples cover the walls, including a Caribbean version, a Devonshire Regiment roundel and the snazzy half-laurel version laid by the former Queen. Normally you have to watch them being made on a little tablet underneath, but yesterday we were allowed through in groups of five to see the real thing.
It's a proper factory floor with desks, workstations, desktop mascots and a fridge where employees keep their different milks. A lot of what's going on involves putting things in boxes, so for example one gent was busy counting wooden Remembrance crosses and packing the requisite number away. A noisy machine out back punches out polyester and paper petals, also the individual 6 million petals that fall from the ceiling of the Royal Albert Hall on Remembrance Eve. But the majority activity is the creation of wreaths by assembling large flowers and inserting them into a holey black ring. This happens at multiple desks, with the two most senior staff charged with assembling the royal versions. Finished wreaths are packed into pizza-style boxes then labelled according to destination, which yesterday included the French and Canadian embassies.
Upstairs is the warehouse, now smaller than it used to be after Tesco donated spare shelving which has allowed the administrative area to expand into the excess. The Poppy Factory year runs from October to October, for hopefully obvious reasons, so at present they're nearing the end of production for 2024/25. The most surprising corner (and the only part of the factory we were permitted to photograph) is a fake Tomb of The Unknown Soldier placed vertically on a lobby wall. Staff maintain a perfect rim of red poppies at all times so that if the real thing at Westminster Abbey is ever damaged, Richmond's spare can immediately be switched into place.
What they don't make here are the small red poppies people pin to their lapels or outer clothing. It's just not practical to have a veteran crew assembling 30 million of these per year, so instead they're put together in an automated factory in Aylesford in Kent. Visitors to the Poppy Factory are still invited to have a go for themselves, first selecting components from boxes labelled Petals, Stalks, Leaves and Buttons. A separate table has all the ingredients for a larger long-stem poppy, where I also had a go. You slot the green cup onto the wire, then add a flat and a crinkly set of petals (once you've found the right hole in the middle), then use a black button to fasten the bloom. I was well chuffed that my attempt passed muster and was placed in the box in the corner, so could end up on any village green anywhere in England later this year.
If you come on a normal tour you get full access to the visitor centre but can only look onto the factory floor from behind a barrier. The first half hour is usually a presentation, then a chance to wander the walls and see some exhibits related to the history of the place, also the aforementioned stab at poppy-making. But it's not an extensive space - the real job takes precedence - so I imagine the cafe fills a substantial share of the remaining hour. The admission price is hefty, which is fair enough given it's a donation to a very worthy cause. And I know it's not really in the spirit of things but thanks to Open House I won't need to buy a poppy this year...
