A Short History of British Standard Colours

Current BS 381C colours

Founded in London in 1901, the Engineering Standards Committee was renamed as the British Engineering Standards Association in 1918. After receiving a Royal Charter in 1929, the organisation was again renamed; this time as the more familiar British Standards Institution (BSI). Setting voluntary - but widely adhered to - civil and mechanical engineering standards; the BSI's global influence was unique until the creation of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in 1947.

BS381C

Published in 1930, BS381 was the BSI's first colour standard. It did not duplicate the work of the British Colour Council, as it fulfilled a very different purpose to the BCC's work. In fact BS381 was not a co-ordinated range of colours at all but rather a collection of individually specified colours; used for camouflage, identification, signalling and coding systems; by the armed forces and other government departments, public bodies and industry.

A page from the 1948 specification of BS381C

In 1948, shortly after the Second World War, BS381 was revised as BS381C: Colours for ready mixed paints. A further revision in 1964, published as Colours for ready mixed paints, was described as "for identification or other technical purposes, or for purposes based on long-established practice". In subsequent years various colours were added in response to the requirements of London Transport and the Ministry of Defence. At one point the standard consisted of 107 colours; however this has now been reduced to 91, in the latest version of BS381C.

Although each colour within the standard has its own number; each also had its own name, used more often in the past than now. These names, often predating the standard and relating to "long-established practice",  will strike a chord of nostalgia to anyone who loved Airfix models as a child. Such evocative names include: Oxford Blue, Brunswick Green (often known as British Racing Green), Light Buff, Camouflage Desert Sand, Signal Red, International Orange, and Dark Admiralty Grey.

BS2660

    BS381WD                                                                                        BS1572       

In 1945 the BSI published a standard of just ten colours: BS381WD: 1945 Flat Colours for Wall Decoration. This was soon replaced by BS1572: 1949 Colours for Flat Finishes for Wall Decoration, which was expanded to 17 colours (black and white are not depicted). Although BS1572 largely duplicated the work of the then still existent British Colour Council; it was specifically designed for the Ministry of Works, rather than for the profession of interior design. This was, in turn, replaced by BS2660: 1955 Colours for Building and Decorative Paints.

BS4800

The current BS4800: 2011 Schedule of paint colours for building purposes is the latest edition of a standard first published in 1972. The first edition was prepared by the Pigments, Paints and Varnishes Standards Committee and was based on a draft, drawn up by the Paintmakers Association of Great Britain and the Royal Institute of British Architects. Together with BS381C, this standard is still widely used in certain sectors of industry in the UK and the Commonwealth; although the European RAL System is slowly displacing British Standard colours.

BS4800: 2011 Schedule of paint colours for building purposes

Other British Standard Colours

BS4900: Specification for vitreous enamel colours for building purposes

BS4901: Specification for plastics colours for building purposes

BS4902: Specification for sheet and tile flooring colours for building purposes

BS4903: Specification for external colours for farm buildings

BS4904: Specification for external cladding colours for building purposes

BS5252: Framework for colour co-ordination for building purposes