Pantechnicon van
Encyclopedia
A Pantechnicon van, currently usually shortened to pantechnicon, was originally a furniture removal van drawn by horses and used by the British company "The Pantechnicon" for delivering and collecting furniture which its customers wished to store. The name is a word largely of British English
usage.
, London, opened around 1830. It combined a picture gallery, a furniture shop, and the sale of carriages, while its southern half was a sizable warehouse for storing furniture and other items. The Seth Smith brothers, originally from Wiltshire
, were builders in the early 19th century and constructed much of the new housing in Belgravia, then a country area. Their clients required storage facilities and this was built with a Greek style Doric column façade, and called Pantechnicon, Greek for "pertaining to all the arts or crafts". Subsequently special wagons were designed with sloping ramps to more easily load furniture with the building name on the side.
The very large, distinctive and noticeable horse-drawn vans which were used to collect and deliver the customers' furniture came to be known as Pantechnicon vans. The warehouse itself was destroyed by fire in 1876 but the usefulness of the vans was by then well established and they had been adopted by other firms. From around 1900, the name was shortened to simply Pantechnicon.
The Pantechnicon Ltd, a furniture storage and removal company continued to trade until the 1970s. The building was largely destroyed by fire in 1874, but the facade still exists as part of an antique shop.
. The lowered floor also saved some of the lifting which was a feature of using normal horse-drawn lorries and vans, which needed a deck high enough to fit the steering mechanism below it. Access was obtained through hinged doors at the rear. Outside these, the tailboard was hinged upwards from the level of the well.
. This seems to have been so as to allow entry to relatively narrow town lanes and such places as the warehouse doorways. To give the driver a clear view of obstructions and to enable him to control the lead horse, he was usually seated on the front of the roof.
The value of these vans seems to have been quite quickly appreciated so that removal firms other than The Pantechnicon operated them, sometimes over long distances between towns. This business was fairly soon made easier however, as the railways did this part of the work more quickly. This is probably where the carefully limited dimensions really arose. The railways had strict rules about loading gauges and the vans were carried between towns, tied down to platform trucks. Take away the coaming boards from around the roof; remove the shafts, fold up and stow the traces and you were left with something remarkably like a British railway goods van, a boxcar
So the pantechnicon van was an early example of ro-ro, capable of taking furniture from door to door. This is not at all surprising. The London and Greenwich Railway set out from its opening in 1836, with the idea of starting passengers on their way along the Dover
Road by carrying them in their own carriages chained down to flat bed trucks with their horses carried in a van (boxcar).
or van is a word derivation of "pantechnicon" commonly currently used in Australia. A pantech is a truck or van with a freight hull made of (or converted to) hard panels. Such vehicles can be used for chilled freight, or as removal vans. The articulated lorries used by the British removals company Pickfords & Son were referred to in the jargon of the day as "articulated pantechnicons".
British English
British English, or English , is the broad term used to distinguish the forms of the English language used in the United Kingdom from forms used elsewhere...
usage.
Origins
The word Pantechnicon is an invented one, formed from the Greek pan ("all") and techne ("art"). It was originally the name of a large establishment in Motcomb Street, Belgrave SquareBelgrave Square
Belgrave Square is one of the grandest and largest 19th century squares in London, England. It is the centrepiece of Belgravia, and was laid out by the property contractor Thomas Cubitt for the 2nd Earl Grosvenor, later the 1st Marquess of Westminster, in the 1820s. Most of the houses were occupied...
, London, opened around 1830. It combined a picture gallery, a furniture shop, and the sale of carriages, while its southern half was a sizable warehouse for storing furniture and other items. The Seth Smith brothers, originally from Wiltshire
Wiltshire
Wiltshire is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire. It contains the unitary authority of Swindon and covers...
, were builders in the early 19th century and constructed much of the new housing in Belgravia, then a country area. Their clients required storage facilities and this was built with a Greek style Doric column façade, and called Pantechnicon, Greek for "pertaining to all the arts or crafts". Subsequently special wagons were designed with sloping ramps to more easily load furniture with the building name on the side.
The very large, distinctive and noticeable horse-drawn vans which were used to collect and deliver the customers' furniture came to be known as Pantechnicon vans. The warehouse itself was destroyed by fire in 1876 but the usefulness of the vans was by then well established and they had been adopted by other firms. From around 1900, the name was shortened to simply Pantechnicon.
The Pantechnicon Ltd, a furniture storage and removal company continued to trade until the 1970s. The building was largely destroyed by fire in 1874, but the facade still exists as part of an antique shop.
Design
Though small by modern standards, they were impressively large by those of their own time. They came in lengths of between 12 and 18 feet, were up to 7 feet broad. The roof was a segment of a cylinder 8 inches higher in the middle than at the edges to ensure ready drainage but it had boards round the edges to allow stowage of extra items. Below the roof-line the body was a cuboid box except that behind the space required by the front wheels when turning tightly, the floor was lowered to permit greater internal headroom. This was achieved by cranking the back axle downwards as in a floatFloat (horse-drawn)
A float is a form of two-wheeled horse-drawn cart with a dropped axle to give an especially low loadbed.They were intended for carrying heavy or unstable items such as milk churns. The name survives today in that of the milkfloat....
. The lowered floor also saved some of the lifting which was a feature of using normal horse-drawn lorries and vans, which needed a deck high enough to fit the steering mechanism below it. Access was obtained through hinged doors at the rear. Outside these, the tailboard was hinged upwards from the level of the well.
Use
They were drawn by two horses in tandemTandem
Tandem is an arrangement where a team of machines, animals or people are lined up one behind another, all facing in the same direction....
. This seems to have been so as to allow entry to relatively narrow town lanes and such places as the warehouse doorways. To give the driver a clear view of obstructions and to enable him to control the lead horse, he was usually seated on the front of the roof.
The value of these vans seems to have been quite quickly appreciated so that removal firms other than The Pantechnicon operated them, sometimes over long distances between towns. This business was fairly soon made easier however, as the railways did this part of the work more quickly. This is probably where the carefully limited dimensions really arose. The railways had strict rules about loading gauges and the vans were carried between towns, tied down to platform trucks. Take away the coaming boards from around the roof; remove the shafts, fold up and stow the traces and you were left with something remarkably like a British railway goods van, a boxcar
Boxcar
A boxcar is a railroad car that is enclosed and generally used to carry general freight. The boxcar, while not the simplest freight car design, is probably the most versatile, since it can carry most loads...
So the pantechnicon van was an early example of ro-ro, capable of taking furniture from door to door. This is not at all surprising. The London and Greenwich Railway set out from its opening in 1836, with the idea of starting passengers on their way along the Dover
Dover
Dover is a town and major ferry port in the home county of Kent, in South East England. It faces France across the narrowest part of the English Channel, and lies south-east of Canterbury; east of Kent's administrative capital Maidstone; and north-east along the coastline from Dungeness and Hastings...
Road by carrying them in their own carriages chained down to flat bed trucks with their horses carried in a van (boxcar).
Modern usage
A pantech truckTruck
A truck or lorry is a motor vehicle designed to transport cargo. Trucks vary greatly in size, power, and configuration, with the smallest being mechanically similar to an automobile...
or van is a word derivation of "pantechnicon" commonly currently used in Australia. A pantech is a truck or van with a freight hull made of (or converted to) hard panels. Such vehicles can be used for chilled freight, or as removal vans. The articulated lorries used by the British removals company Pickfords & Son were referred to in the jargon of the day as "articulated pantechnicons".