page_title: International Computers Limited
section_title: Locations
hierarchical_section_title: International Computers Limited / Locations
caption_attribution_description: Polski: ICL Bracknell, hala
context_page_description: International Computers Limited was a large British computer hardware, computer software and computer services company that operated from 1968 until 2002. It was formed through a merger of International Computers and Tabulators, English Electric Leo Marconi and Elliott Automation in 1968. The company's most successful product line was the ICL 2900 Series range of mainframe computers.
  In later years, ICL diversified its product line but the bulk of its profits always came from its mainframe customers. New ventures included marketing a range of powerful IBM clones made by Fujitsu, various minicomputer and personal computer ranges and a range of retail point-of-sale equipment and back-office software. Although it had significant sales overseas, ICL's mainframe business was dominated by large contracts from the UK public sector, including Post Office Ltd, the Inland Revenue, the Department for Work and Pensions and the Ministry of Defence. It also had a strong market share with UK local authorities and nationalized utilities including the water, electricity, and gas boards.
context_section_description: ICL was concentrated in the United Kingdom, with its corporate headquarters in Putney in the London borough of Wandsworth.
  At the time of the original merger, the company inherited extensive engineering and manufacturing facilities in West Gorton, Manchester; Castlereagh in Belfast, Stevenage and Croydon from ICT, and from English Electric in Kidsgrove, Staffordshire and Winsford, Cheshire. Manufacture and assembly also took place at several factories in Letchworth Garden City (the original home of the British Tabulating Company) and Croydon.  The company had a large research, operating system and software development and support centre in Bracknell, another smaller one at Dalkeith in Scotland and a software development centre in Adelaide, South Australia, between 1970 and 1973, application development in Reading, and training centres at Moor Hall (Cookham), Beaumont College (Old Windsor) (sales, support and software) and Letchworth (Hertfordshire) (manufacturing & field engineering). The company also had manufacturing facilities in Park Road Mill, Dukinfield; later replaced by a purpose built factory at Ashton-under-Lyne. A state of the art printed circuit board plant was built on Plymouth Grove, Manchester in 1979, however financial troubles within the company forced its closure in 1981. Other offices included a facility at Bridgeford House in Nottingham which is now the headquarters of Rushcliffe Borough Council.
  For some years ICL maintained a training and presentation facility for senior management at Hedsor House, near Taplow, Berkshire.
  Outside the UK, ICL's offices around the world were mainly sales and marketing operations, with some application development for the local market. The exceptions were development and manufacturing sites arising from acquisitions, such as Utica in the United States from the Singer merger, and a variety of former Nokia Data sites in Sweden and Finland.
  ICL and its customers often referred to these locations by the Site Code, especially where multiple sites might exist in a town, for instance with the Putney headquarters building (now Putney Wharf Tower) being LON11 (London 11), the training college at Beaumont being WSR01 (Windsor 01) and the southern System Support Centre (SCC) at Bracknell, Berkshire being BRA01 (Bracknell 01). BRA05 was the new headquarters of ICL (UK) Ltd, the company's UK sales and customer service division which moved from its original base at Putney Bridge House (LON13) in Fulham, London to a new building in Bracknell in the late 1980s.
caption: Part of the computer hall at Bracknell in 1977
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