The sound of fairground organs, still heard on 'galloper' carousels, is distinctive and evocative - but less known is that much of it comes from an unassuming building in Clerkenwell. Chiappa Ltd are, the sign tells us, organ builders. That short description hardly conveys the range of instruments created by Chiappa, or the changes its business has undergone since its founding in 1864.
Giuseppi Chiappa moved from Italy to leading Parisian organmakers Gavioli before establishing his own London firm. It has been at the current Eyre Street Hill location since 1877. Chiappa Ltd initially made barrel organs (small, hand-cranked instruments which played secular music on the streets and hymns in non-conformist churches). As it grew in success, its organs grew too: its instruments included large fairground organs weighing several tons and transported on their own trailers. These magnificent instruments could include bells, drums, and moving figures as well as the organ pipes. They did not need an organist but rather produced music from books (strips of perforated cards), with the sound produced by compressed air.
In the later twentieth century, Chiappa Ltd's work increasingly focused on maintaining and repairing these organs. A fantastic news report of 1962 available in the East Anglian Film Archive, which features an interview with Victor Chiappa in his workshop, confirmed that the company was almost the last doing this work in Britain. Another report (below) features an enthusiastic collector and his fairground organ.
Today, Chiappa Ltd no longer build organs. Giuseppi's grandson Victor, who was still running the business in his 80s, died in 1993 and the company passed to his son Albert; it continues despite his death in 2008. The company is playing a vital role in the revival of interest in fairground organs, creating books of music for them. These perforated cardboard books, varnished to protect the punched holes, are produced according to the size of the organ. They contain the tunes automatically played by the organ: not only a vital element in creating the music but also important for keeping their repertoire varied. In its earliest days, the company had purchased the music from other firms but Ludiovico Chiappa produced his own arrangements from 1918. Some were even composed by one of the family, Luigi Chiappa. While some patterns were lost in a fire during the Second World War, the company continue to collect and revive them.
Chiappa Ltd is not only a part of fairground and music history. It is also a reminder that Clerkenwell was the heart of London's Italian community in the nineteenth century. Other traces of its presence, such as St Peter's Church and various cafes, are better-known but this building conjures the working lives of those Italians who settled here.
Exploring Clerkenwell:
I was on a guided walk led by Laura Agustin, who offers a range of walks exploring the lives of working-class Londoners.
Further reading:
