The Lever Brothers Factory was a soap factory which operated from 1895 until 1988. It was founded by William Hesketh Lever, an English industrialist, businessman, philanthropist and politician who would go on to found Unilever, one of the world's largest consumer goods company. The Lever Brothers Factory was established to extract oil from copra (dried coconut kernels), which was shipped back to England to make Sunlight Soap. Lever employed many people from the Balmain area and the large industrial buildings from the factory were a prominent feature of the local landscape until it was demolished in 1996 to make way for a new apartment complex. 5 and 7 Rosebery Place are two of only three of the original buildings that remain.
