Alaska Factory, 61 Grange Road, Bermondsey. The firm of C.W. Martin & Sons Ltd. owned the Alaska Factory, which was founded in 1869, for about a century. Its business was fur, above all sealskin fur, and eventually it employed around a tenth of all the fur workers in the United Kingdom. The present Alaska Factory was built in 1932 to the design of Wallis, Gilbert & Partners. The Alaska Factory suffered a serious fire early in 1940, caused by an electrical fault, but had a narrow escape from an unexploded bomb during the subsequent Blitz. It has had considerable postwar restoration, the tower is labelled MARTINS, today it says ALASKA. On the right of the arch is a telephone box and on the left a sign stating 'Specialist cleaning of sheepskin suede & leather garments Furs & Rugs etc. by Martin Blau'. In its final years in Bermondsey, Martin's became Martin Rice Ltd. After the firm removal from the district, the factory was eventually converted into flats.
The cache is a small magnetic box the lid slides open not pulls open