ENTERPRISE HOUSE

ENTERPRISE HOUSE, BLYTH ROAD

Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places

Overview

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1244861
Date first listed:: 31-Oct-1997
List Entry Name:: ENTERPRISE HOUSE
Statutory Address:: ENTERPRISE HOUSE, BLYTH ROAD

User submitted image — Uploaded by Charles Watson This photo may not represent the current condition of the site
View all

Location

Location of this list entry and nearby places that are also listed. Use our map search to find more listed places.

There is a problem

Use of this mapping is subject to terms and conditions.

This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale.

What is the National Heritage List for England?

The National Heritage List for England is a unique register of our country's most significant historic buildings and sites. The places on the list are protected by law and most are not open to the public.

The list includes:

🏠 Buildings
🏰 Scheduled monuments
🌳 Parks and gardens
⚔️ Battlefields
⚓ Shipwrecks

Find out more about listing

Images of England Project

To view this image please use Firefox, Chrome, Safari, or Edge.

Archive image, may not represent current condition of site.

Date:: 2001-12-01
Reference:: IOE01/06214/20
Rights:: © Mr Adam Watson. Source: Historic England Archive

Historic England Archive

Search over 1 million photographs and drawings from the 1850s to the present day using our images archive.

Find Photos

Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1244861
Date first listed:: 31-Oct-1997
List Entry Name:: ENTERPRISE HOUSE
Statutory Address 1:: ENTERPRISE HOUSE, BLYTH ROAD

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

Location

Statutory Address:: ENTERPRISE HOUSE, BLYTH ROAD

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

County:: Greater London Authority
District:: Hillingdon (London Borough)
Parish:: Non Civil Parish
National Grid Reference:: TQ0935479607

Details

TQ 07 NE 804/2/10040

HAYES BLYTH ROAD Enterprise House II

Former gramophone factory for His Master's Voice, now warehousing and industrial units. 1912 by the Trussed Concrete Steel Company, E Owen Williams senior designer. Reinforced concrete frame, with posts and beams using the Kahn system of reinforcement patented in 1903 by Albert and Julius Kahn in Detroit, USA, and painted brick infill. The building is unusual for its date not only in its system of construction but that this is expressed externally. Flat roof, with north-facing rooflights to rear. Irregular E-shaped plan, with offset centre denoted by rooftop water tank, its wings projecting to rear. Street facade is 1-10-3-5 bay composition, with offset three-bay centre containing staircase set round central liftshaft and topped by watertank - itself supported on a concrete frame treated as a tripartite arch to the streetfront. Small pane metal windows with central opening casements. Iron railing to roof. Sides and rear similar, but east side and rear with projecting frame indicating that the building was intended to be extended. The treatment of the reinforcement bars at the top of the columns as a form of capital is distinctive in concrete construction of this period and is also found internally. Sir E Owen Williams is the most significant engineer turned architect in twentieth-century British architecture, noted for his work for the Boots Pure Drug Company, the Daily Express and British Overseas Airways Corporation. This is his first known work. It is significant in its own right as an early reinforced concrete building which is unusual for its date in that the frame clearly expressed as a composition rather than hidden behind brick or render. This and the rooftop watertank, a curious architectural feature, has led to the building becoming known as 'Little Chicago'. Sources: The Builder, 29 March 1912, pp 375-7; Peter Collins, 'Concrete, the Vision of a New Architecture', 1959; David Cottam and Gavin Stamp, 'Sir E Owen Williams', 1986; Andrew Saint, 'Some Thoughts About the Architectural Use of Concrete', AA Files 21, 1991.

Listing NGR: TQ0935479607

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:: 468926
Legacy System:: LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Collins, P, Concrete the Vision of a New Architecture, (1959)
D, Cottam, G, Stamp (Ed), Sir Owen Williams 1890-1969, (1986)
'The Builder' in 29 March, (1912), 375-7
Saint, A, 'Architectural Association Files' in Some Thoughts About the Architectural Use of Concrete, (1991)

Legal

This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.