Merton Abbey Mills
Arthur Liberty opened his flagship shop “Liberty’s of London” in Regent Street in 1875. The shop specialised in luxury goods, especially imports from the Far East. Unfortunately many of the imported fabrics proved too delicate to be used by dressmakers and interior decorators and the dyes did not last. This encouraged Liberty to look for a printer closer to home. He found a family of textile producers by the name of Littler whose works were next to the River Wandle in Merton Abbey now better known as Colliers Wood. The Littler Factory, as it was then known, had existed since the 1750s. The family printed for the Liberty store until the early 1900s when in 1905 Liberty’s took over the site. They replaced many of the existing buildings and built many of those that are now on the site known as Merton Abbey Mills. Closing in 1982 the Liberty Print Works was the last textile works along the Wandle Valley.