Group    From 1815  To 2009

Royal Doulton / Doulton Potteries

Categories: Craft / Design, Industry

Ceramic manufacturing company. Began with a factory at Vauxhall Walk, Lambeth. Initially a partnership of John Doulton, Martha Jones, and John Watts, Jones left in 1820 leaving the company name as Doulton & Watts. John Watts retired and in 1853 the company became Doulton & Co. It was Henry Doulton who introduced art ceramics into the business.

Doultons also manufactured some metal items, such as taps and cast iron baths and notably, the cast iron ‘swan’ benches on the Albert Embankment as can be seen by the stamp near their feet (brought to our attention by Memoirs of a Metro Girl).

In 1907/8 Mary Watts asked Royal Doulton to make tiles for the Postman's Park memorial. We wondered if this indicated that John Watts was related to G. F. Watts and that explained the commission but we think not. By this time G. F. Watts was dead and Mary Watts was forced to find another maker because De Morgan had ceased making tiles. She never liked Doulton's tiles nor, apparently, her husband's family so it seems unlikely that she chose Doultons for any familial reason.

The brand still exists, owned by a conglomerate, but the company folded in 2009.

We cannot discover whether the John Watts of Doulton & Watts was related in any way to G. F. Watts.

Other work in London includes: A corridor in St Thomas's Hospital is decorated with a number of lovely large Doulton panels depicting nursery rhymes, presumably saved when a children's ward was demolished. Some of the decorative elements on the nearby Beaufoy Institute are probably by Doulton.

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This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Royal Doulton / Doulton Potteries

Commemorated ati

This section lists the memorials created by the subject on this page:
Royal Doulton / Doulton Potteries

Creations i

Apollo Inn

An information board near an entrance to the gardens informs: "Euterpe the M...

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Doulton drinking fountain - Henry Fawcett

{It's highly probable that the fountain had a plaque commemorating Henry Fawc...

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Henry Doulton's pottery

Vauxhall History gives: "Doulton worked closely with the renowned Lambeth Sch...

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PP - 2A - Smith

This is a lovely plaque but the fireman's helmet on a plaque for a police con...

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PP - 2E - Ricketts

PC Harold Frank Ricketts, Metropolitan Police, drowned at Teignmouth whilst t...

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Other Subjects

David Birch

David Birch

In 1985 working with the London Pottery (96 Kingston Road, London Pottery, SW19). And in 2022: MD at The London Pottery Co Ltd, MD at The London Design Studio Co Ltd, (now at the Kingston Road addr...

Person, Craft / Design

1 memorial
James Radley Young

James Radley Young

From Tessellations: "James Radley Young was a major designer for Carter Tiles during the early part of the 20th century. In addition to single tiles he also designed a number of major tile panels f...

Person, Art, Craft / Design

1 memorial
Ted Low

Ted Low

Graphic designer. BA from Goldsmiths, BSc from Brighton.

Person, Art, Craft / Design

1 memorial
John Meard Junior

John Meard Junior

Apprenticed to his father in August 1700 – ‘John Meard Citizen and Turner... his father and Master admitted to this Freedom’ (Freedom Admissions Register of the Turners’ Company). On his father’s ...

Person, Architecture, Craft / Design, Property

1 memorial
Sir Arthur Mackmurdo

Sir Arthur Mackmurdo

Architect and designer. Born Arthur Heygate Mackmurdo.  In 1874, he travelled to Italy with John Ruskin to study the architecture. He later opened his own architectural practice in London, and in 1...

Person, Architecture, Craft / Design

1 memorial