Anglo 🇪🇸

Anglo-Spanish Electricity, S.A. (AEESA) is the Barcelona-based company that links three eras of cooling in Spain. It was founded in 1880 by the English engineer George St. Noble, and was later run by his sons, as an importer of “industrial electricity, domestic and industrial refrigeration, air conditioning, large lighting installations,” water pumps and light sources; in May 1899 it made one of the first wireless telegraphy demonstrations in the country at the University of Barcelona. It represented the Anglo‑Saxon radio and refrigeration brands of the interwar period (Burndept, Pilot, Fada, Philco, Kelvinator) and in 1925 inaugurated its headquarters, designed by Eduard Ferrés, at the corner of Gran Vía 525 with Urgell, a building that for seventy years was one of the city’s showcases. When the war and the blockade cut off imports it began to manufacture: Anglo radios from 1943, Anglo refrigerators (a 1952 advertisement and the Anglo‑65 refrigerator), and, according to a 1940s advertisement, “manufacture of automatic refrigeration compressors and ammonia compressors” in its workshops at Sepúlveda 78.

Air conditioning was a natural continuation. A catalog of the Anglo brand located in collecting offers “compact air conditioners with water‑cooled condensers”, models SW36-3, SW60-3, SW90-3, SW120-3 and SW240-3: autonomous vertical cabinets for bars, offices, banks and restaurants, the same type that Klimat or Elyte were manufacturing at the time. And in 1966 AEESA signed as the Spanish distributor the advertisement for the Royal Admiral reversible‑cycle unit, the first heat‑pump appliance we have seen advertised in Spain. Own manufacturer for the tertiary sector and importer of the American brand for the home: a very Barcelona‑style business model.

In 1973 Matsushita bought 80 % of the shares with the commitment to keep production local; the Anglo appliances gradually disappeared and the Gran Vía building became the headquarters of National Panasonic in Spain until its demolition in 1994, to build housing. In that way the National air conditioners of the 80s —the ones technicians remember among the “dead” brands— entered through the same door as the Admiral of 1966.

The period pieces are scattered throughout todocoleccion: the 1940s advertisement “Manufacture of automatic and ammonia refrigeration compressors, AEESA, Anglo-Spanish Electricity, S.A., Barcelona: Sepúlveda 78, Av. José Antonio 525, Pelayo 12,” with photos of an ammonia compressor and an automatic unit; an early‑century refrigeration catalog “Eléctrica Perfecta”; a 1932 sheet of a “air‑renewing fan”; a brochure on “refrigeration installation”; Anglo refrigerator ads from 1952 and the Anglo‑65 refrigerator; radio sheets from 1925 and 1927 (Neutrodyne Fada receivers); a tribute document “silver wedding 1944‑1969”; and the July 1966 Selections sheet of the Royal Admiral signed by “Anglo‑Spanish Electricity, S.A., Avenida José Antonio 525, Barcelona”. The Anglo compact air‑conditioner catalog (models SW36‑3 to SW240‑3, water‑cooled condensation) was located by Frostalgia on the same website.

The corporate history comes from the Barcelofilia blog (founded in 1880, headquarters in 1925, manufacturing since the post‑war period, purchase by Matsushita in 1973, National Panasonic headquarters and demolition in 1994) and from the Radiomuseum entry, which lists the represented brands and the successive addresses (Pelayo 12, José Antonio 31 and Cortes 525). The testimony of a technician in 2009 cites National among the air‑conditioning brands that disappeared, which he dismantled in Spain, closing the circle. The date of the SW catalogue remains to be found, as does whether the compact units were manufactured in Barcelona or imported.

History machine-translated from Spanish. Can you improve it? Write to us.