Identify the location please! Essex or Surrey perhaps?

[PalmTree1]

It's the job title that worries me, all these establishments were civil service,  you might expect to see scientific officer, or similar

It depends where the job title "Chemist journeyman" came from. If it was from a marriage record or baptism record of any children it could predate 1930 by several years.

Moderator comment: edited for content, please do not post full details from the 1939 register

Certainly does not look like the site for the original photo but could he have been employed in the food industry?
Paul

[BarryBear]

HI Everyone.
Thanks for all the detective work.
Just to add, Joseph and family were in Teddington in April !931 as thats when my Dad was born. The Chadwell Heath address and his occupation are from his eldest son's death certificate in January 1930.
Sometime in the early 30's they moved to Wimbledon, then Croydon. But, as the photo is 1930, this doesn't make much difference.
Thanks again.
Barry

[StevieSteve]

Anybody fancy a trip to Hackney? (No-one has ever answered yes to that question)

Title:   The House of Berger during the years of the World War 1939-1945. Deals in the main with the premises at Homerton and Chadwell Heath. Includes photographs of laboratories and library.

Reference:   D/B/BER/2/7/48
Date:   1945
Held by:   Hackney Archives Department

[ScouseBoy]

I do wonder about the sign though, thinking about it, would they really need to identify a building as "Laboratories", don't know much about the place but I would have thought there were a number of laboratories on site? 

Too true Maddy, the place is full of laboratories so in many ways it would make a nonsense of the sign. As the OP's grandfather was a chemist it is worth noting that the Chemical Research Laboratory opened on the NPL site in 1925 and was later known as the National Chemical Laboratory before closing in 1965. I have not found a photo of this building. One thing that struck me was that in the majority of cases there were steps leading down from the exit doors of the brick buildings, due presumably to fears of flooding... Such steps do not appear in the original picture.
Paul

   Much of the work carried out at the Admiralty Research Laboratory   would have been Secret,    therefore, they would  be unlikely    to have   had a sign saying "Secret Laboratories".    So "Laboratories"   is  an adequate  description.     All the buildings on the site  would have  been identified by either a number   or an alphabetic initial. (See wiki  for further detail, please)

[rosie99]

What was his occupation on your fathers birth certificate 

[ScouseBoy]

The building in the OP's photo is from a later era than The Admiralty Research Lab as suggested with authority by ScouseBoy.

What evidence do you have   to be able to make that statement, please?

Buildings on the site  occupied by both the NPL   and ARL  were both commissioned by the Ministry of Public Works.  It was a big site.

Later on, the Ministry of Defence  built   or extended  many Research establishments:    Royal Signals Research Establishment;   Underwater Weapons Research Establishment.   Royal Aircraft Establishment
and several others,  people may wish to look them up on the internet.

[BarryBear]

What was his occupation on your fathers birth certificate 

Research chemist