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J F Clarke & Sons J F Clarke & Sons was a firm of gas engineers and iron founders, active in the City of London in the second half of the 19th century. The firm owned a foundry at 41, Featherstone St, Finsbury, just north of the City of London; and a showroom at 49 Moorgate, in the City.

The firm was founded by John Farrand Clarke (1820 – 1898) who is said to have started the business in 1836. Clarke was the son of a watchmaker in Bethnal Green. He described himself as a ‘Gas Steam and Hot Water Engineer’ in 1857. The 1861 census describes him as a ‘‘gas fitter employing 7 men and 4 boys.’ By the 1870s John Farrand Clarke was working in partnership with his sons Robert (1846 - 1922), Alfred (1851 - 1912) and Arthur (1854 - 1922). JF Clarke retired from the partnership in 1892 leaving Robert and Alfred to run the business. J F Clarke & Sons was incorporated in 1906 but dissolved by 1916, perhaps a consequence of Alfred’s death in 1912.