Just before Christmas I found myself in London's Camden Town so, seizing the moment, I decided to trek up Kentish Town Road in search of Jadwin House, home of the British Bullpen from late 1978.
Marvel UK shared the upper floors of (the distinctly nondiscript) 205-211 Kentish Town Road with Grandreams, the prolific publisher of annuals who, amidst many TV, cinema, pop and media titles, also published Marvel's hardbacks for the first part of the Eighties.
The expanded British Bullpen (production had, for the company's first decade, been based in New York), now under the leadership of Dez Skinn, relocated back to the big city, from Sevenoaks in Kent, in late 1978.
Marvel's offices were on the second floor above the shop units currently occupied by Ladbrokes and the Chicken Cottage.
The burgeoning M-UK line-up at the time included SPIDER-MAN, STAR WARS, DOCTOR WHO, HULK COMIC, RAMPAGE, MARVEL COMIC, MARVEL SUPER HEROES, SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN, the Pocket Books, FUTURE TENSE, VALOUR, MARVEL TEAM-UP, FORCES IN COMBAT, MARVEL ACTION, MARVEL SUPER ADVENTURES, CAPTAIN AMERICA, BLAKE'S SEVEN, SCOOBY DOO AND HIS TV FRIENDS, STARBURST, CINEMA and (thanks to their frequently implemented hatch-match-dispatch policy) many more.
The business moved again mid decade to Redan Place (see a previous STARLOGGED post) in the shadow of the (about to close) Whiteleys department store/ shopping centre. They remained in West London for several years until a close shave with a crane promoted them to relocate again to Arundal House (see yet another past post) across the road from Temple Tube and the Thames.
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