John Cooke was a local printer in Meadow Lane, Leeds, and he had a son born on 4 July 1842 who was named Alfred Battye Cooke who throughout his life would only be known as Alf. Alf’s early years were spent as a newsboy and then working in the family printing business and his upbringing was very strict.
Alf married at the age of 24 and he and his wife Annie opened a newsagents, stationary, and a printers shop at 68 Hunslet Road in 1866. He was very ambitious, probably due to his upbringing, and he installed his first lithographic press a year later and making colour Illustrations possible. His idea was to print picture almanacs for the local shopkeepers to give to their customers at Christmas, the idea proved to be a sell-out.
By the early 1870s his business was so successful he was able to expand to new premises near Crown Point Bridge and around the same time he and his wife, Annie, together with their five young children moved from Hunslet to new more pleasant surroundings in Cottage Road, Headingley.
Business kept on improving until 1880 when there was a terrible fire which left him with nothing but, undeterred he borrowed enough money to rebuild his factory and restart again.
He took on all sorts of jobs from wrappers and packaging to advertising leaflets and posters, but increasingly he took an interest in coloured art reproduction, particularly the great and the good. His most popular being Sarah Bernhardt as La Tosca and Ellen Terry as Portia and pictures illustrative of famous hymns such as ‘Abide with me’ and ‘Lead kindly light’. These sold by the hundreds of thousands – there were no celebrity photos and magazines at this time.
In 1885 his portrait of Queen Victoria framed in a wreath of roses was a best seller at both home and abroad, 100,000 being distributed in Australia alone with the Christmas Edition of the Sydney Evening News.
His colour printing was admired for its high artistic quality and the icing on the cake came in 1885 when he was granted the Royal Warrant as ‘Chromolithographer to Her Majesty’. From then on he styled himself ‘Queen’s Printer’ enjoying the new status to the full and at the same time moving from Cottage Road to live in the grandeur of Weetwood Hall.
Alf Cooke was a real character, a paternalistic employer, with a dynamic personality who took a role in Leeds as a Liberal Councillor in Hunslet where in 1883 he was returned unopposed. He was also Chairman of the Waterworks Committee as well as being a Major in the local Engineering Corps.
In 1890 he was unanimously elected Mayor of Leeds, later an Alderman and JP. He was known for his active charity work. In 1886 when the harsh winter weather was causing terrible hardship to outside workers and families he opened a soup kitchen under his personal supervision. When he heard that Leeds housewives were being overcharged by local fishmongers he bought two Scarborough fishing boats himself and had the fish brought to Leeds for sale on his stalls set up near his works and sold at much lower prices to his employees and others.
These were good worthwhile schemes and good publicity too. But when his manager and Chief Clerk asked for a share of the profits they were immediately dismissed. Bill Pickersgill went on to found Chorley & Pickersgill, The Electric Press, Cookridge Street, and the Chief Clerk Charlie Lightowler set up on his own in a former flax mill in Joseph Street, Hunslet as a specialist litho printer on tin boxes.
On the Sunday morning of 30 September 1894 while Alf was in Scarborough his works were once again burnt down by fire leaving only a shell, an occupational hazard, and he ordered a special train to bring him back to Leeds as soon as possible.
Alf wouldn’t admit defeat and commissioned the distinguished architect Thomas Ambler who had been responsible for the local foundry of TF & JH Braime on Hunslet Road to design him a new building that was to be galleried with a glass roof and lit by electricity, it became known as the ‘largest, cleanest, healthiest printing works in the world’. The third Crown Point works now with its own fire engine and incorporating a clock tower with its clock a copy of that in the Town Hall opened again in 1895 and still stands.
Alf Cooke died at his home, Weetwood Hall, on 23 March 1902 and the Leeds Mercury said ‘that he had built a business in the country that was second to none’. His funeral was one of the largest seen in the City of Leeds.
With the death of Alf Cooke his sons took over the running of the business and they diversified into playing cards, card games, and Tarot cards along with doing posters and books. In 1921 they combined their business with Norbury, Natzio & Company, and Remorse & Sons to form a new Company called Universal Printers Ltd. However, in 1925 they were trading under the name of the Universal Playing Card Company Ltd.
Sadly the family connection was severed when the grandson of Alf’s was killed in the Second World War.
Extra production room was needed and was found at the junction of Leathley Road and Hunslet Road/Cross Myrtle Street, Hunslet, where the St Judas Mission stood. This had been built in 1875, but fell into disuse in the 1940s and was purchased and demolished to make an extension to the factory. In 1961 the Company acquired Balding & Mansell and in 1970 Waddington’s took over the Universal Card Playing Company. The Universal Printers was renamed the Bemrose Corporation in 1971 and by 1976 they comprised of seven operating divisions, but in 1982 the British Printing Corporation sold its 20% holding in the Bemrose Corporation. 1988 saw Bemrose acquire Henry Booth (Hull) Ltd and at the same time many of the old constituent companies were put into liquidation. The year 1992 saw them acquire Barnard & Jackson and in 1996 Charles Letts & Company.
In 2000 Bemrose sold its printing division to the management of the various units in order to concentrate on its new business area of promotional merchandise and the company was named 4Imprint while 2001 the Bemrose Group acquire Bemrose Security & Promotional Printing Ltd and Henry Booth Ltd when it then changed its name again to in 2002 to Bemrose Booth.
All production now seems to be out of Leeds and Alf Cooke’s factory was owned by Bonar Imca but the works closed in 2006 and waited for redevelopment, this was done and it is now part of Leeds City College, a skills college for training apprentices as, strangely enough, is Braimes old works which is now the University Technical College (UTC).
Bemrose Booth Paragon are now specialist in magnetic tickets and trade as ParagonID.
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