Langley Court, WPRL main building Wellcome L0041443

Wellcome Research Laboratories was a site in

Beckenham Beckenham () is a town in Greater London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley, in Greater London. Until 1965 it was part of the historic county of Kent. It is located south-east of Charing Cross, situated north of Elmers End and E ...

, south-east London, that was a main research centre for pharmaceuticals. Until 1965, this laboratory site was situated in

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

History

In 1894

Henry Wellcome Sir Henry Solomon Wellcome (August 21, 1853 – July 25, 1936) was an American pharmaceutical entrepreneur. He founded the pharmaceutical company Burroughs Wellcome & Company with his colleague Silas Burroughs in 1880, which is one of the fo ...

set up a laboratory in central London to investigate a treatment for

diphtheria Diphtheria is an infection caused by the bacterium '' Corynebacterium diphtheriae''. Most infections are asymptomatic or have a mild clinical course, but in some outbreaks more than 10% of those diagnosed with the disease may die. Signs and s ...

. In 1898 it moved to Brockwell Hall in

Herne Hill Herne Hill is a district in South London, approximately four miles from Charing Cross and bordered by Brixton, Camberwell, Dulwich, and Tulse Hill. It sits to the north and east of Brockwell Park and straddles the boundary between the boroughs ...

(now in

Lambeth Lambeth () is a district in South London, England, in the London Borough of Lambeth, historically in the County of Surrey. It is situated south of Charing Cross. The population of the London Borough of Lambeth was 303,086 in 2011. The area expe ...

). In 1919 Henry Wellcome bought a 105-acre site in Beckenham, Kent, which cost £32,000. The site had belonged to the Langley family since 1350. Langley Court had been built in 1886 by James Bucknall, who lived in the house with his family until 1914. It was named the Wellcome Research Laboratories in 1946 after the Wellcome Chemical Research Laboratories moved to the site. The

Wellcome Trust The Wellcome Trust is a charitable foundation focused on health research based in London, in the United Kingdom. It was established in 1936 with legacies from the pharmaceutical magnate Henry Wellcome (founder of one of the predecessors of Glaxo ...

had been set up in 1936, after the death in that year of Sir Henry Wellcome. They have developed the antibiotic

trimethoprim Trimethoprim (TMP) is an antibiotic used mainly in the treatment of bladder infections. Other uses include for middle ear infections and travelers' diarrhea. With sulfamethoxazole or dapsone it may be used for ''Pneumocystis'' pneumonia in peop ...

Awards

In April 1990, the site won the Queen's Award for Export and Technological Achievement for their Retrovir drug (

Zidovudine Zidovudine (ZDV), also known as azidothymidine (AZT), is an antiretroviral medication used to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS. It is generally recommended for use in combination with other antiretrovirals. It may be used to prevent mother-to-child ...

), an

antiretroviral medication Antiviral drugs are a class of medication used for treating viral infections. Most antivirals target specific viruses, while a broad-spectrum antiviral is effective against a wide range of viruses. Unlike most antibiotics, antiviral drugs do n ...

; it had been launched in 1987 as AZT, and was the world's first antiretroviral medication.London Gazette
/ref> This medication caused the Wellcome share price to increase in 1989 by five times.

Closure

It closed in 1995 after Wellcome had been taken over by Glaxo in March 1995 to form Glaxo Wellcome. In December 2000, Glaxo Wellcome became

GlaxoSmithKline GSK plc, formerly GlaxoSmithKline plc, is a British multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company with global headquarters in London, England. Established in 2000 by a merger of Glaxo Wellcome and SmithKline Beecham. GSK is the ten ...

, when it merged with SmithKline Beecham.

Directors

* Sir

Salvador Moncada Sir Salvador Moncada, FRS, FRCP, FMedSci (born 3 December 1944) is a Honduran-British pharmacologist and professor. He is currently Research Domain Director for Cancer at the University of Manchester. In the past, he was the Research Directo ...

FRS 1986-95

Alumni

Adrien Albert Adrien Albert (19 November 1907 – 29 December 1989) was a leading authority in the development of medicinal chemistry in Australia. Albert also authored many important books on chemistry, including one on selective toxicity. His father, J ...

June Almeida June Dalziel Almeida (5 October 1930 – 1 December 2007) was a Scottish virologist, a pioneer in virus imaging, identification, and diagnosis. Her skills in electron microscopy earned her an international reputation. In 1964, Almeida was rec ...

* Sir James Black FRS, winner of the 1988 Nobel Prize for Medicine * Victor Darley-Usmar * Trevor M Jones *

Charles Kellaway Charles Halliley Kellaway, (16 January 1889 – 13 December 1952) was an Australian medical researcher and science administrator. Biography Early years and education Charles Kellaway was born at the parsonage attached to St James's Old Cathe ...

FRS *

Gilberto de Nucci Gilberto De Nucci (born 18 March 1958, Campinas) is a noted Brazilian physician, scientist and university professor in the field of pharmacology. Education He was born in Campinas, state of São Paulo (state), São Paulo, Brazil. His father was a w ...

* Alan R. Saltiel * Sir

Patrick Vallance Sir Patrick John Thompson Vallance (born 17 March 1960) is a British physician, scientist, and clinical pharmacologist who has worked in both academia and industry. He has served as the Government Chief Scientific Adviser (United Kingdom), Chie ...

FRS, Chief Scientific Adviser to UK Government since 2018 * Sir

John Vane Sir John Robert Vane (29 March 1927 – 19 November 2004) was a British pharmacologist who was instrumental in the understanding of how aspirin produces pain-relief and anti-inflammatory effects and his work led to new treatments for heart and ...

FRS, winner of the 1982 Nobel Prize for Medicine * John L. Wallace

References

External links

Wellcome Research history
{{authority control 1894 establishments in England 1995 disestablishments in England Former buildings and structures in the London Borough of Bromley Laboratories in the United Kingdom Medical research institutes in the United Kingdom Pharmaceutical industry in the United Kingdom Pharmaceutical research institutes Research institutes in London Wellcome Trust Pharmaceutical companies established in 1894 British companies established in 1894 British companies disestablished in 1995