Soho Foundry Former Boulton and Watt Foundry Pattern Stores and Erecting Shops
SOHO FOUNDRY FORMER BOULTON AND WATT FOUNDRY PATTERN STORES AND ERECTING SHOPS, FOUNDRY LANE
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II*
- List Entry Number:
- 1268451
- Date first listed:
- 26-Jun-1996
- List Entry Name:
- Soho Foundry Former Boulton and Watt Foundry Pattern Stores and Erecting Shops
- Statutory Address:
- SOHO FOUNDRY FORMER BOULTON AND WATT FOUNDRY PATTERN STORES AND ERECTING SHOPS, FOUNDRY LANE
Location
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Images of England Project
- Date:
- 2007-08-23
- Reference:
- IOE01/16216/15
- Rights:
- © Mr Walter Chinn. Source: Historic England Archive
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Official list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II*
- List Entry Number:
- 1268451
- Date first listed:
- 26-Jun-1996
- Date of most recent amendment:
- 23-Jul-1997
- List Entry Name:
- Soho Foundry Former Boulton and Watt Foundry Pattern Stores and Erecting Shops
- Statutory Address 1:
- SOHO FOUNDRY FORMER BOULTON AND WATT FOUNDRY PATTERN STORES AND ERECTING SHOPS, FOUNDRY LANE
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
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.
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
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.
Location
- Statutory Address:
- SOHO FOUNDRY FORMER BOULTON AND WATT FOUNDRY PATTERN STORES AND ERECTING SHOPS, FOUNDRY LANE
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- District:
- Sandwell (Metropolitan Authority)
- Parish:
- Non Civil Parish
- National Grid Reference:
- SP0340888841
Details
SP 08 NW SANDWELL FOUNDRY LANE
(west side), Smethwick
1868/9/10012 Soho Foundry: former
Boulton & Watt Foundry,
Pattern Stores and
Erecting Shops
26.6.96
GV II*
Foundry, pattern stores and erecting shops. Built 1794-95 for Matthew Boulton & James Watt, extended 1800 and later C19 and C20 alterations; pattern stores 1797, extended 1799-1800, 1809,1845 and later C19. Red brick. Belfast truss roofs clad in corrugated sheet steel with ventilation louvres on the ridges and brick coped gable ends. PLAN: rectangular plan foundry with casting pit and boring mill at east end, extended to west c1800 and late C19 parallel range added on north sicre. Along the north side of the original foundry a tunnel leads to a long range of pattern stores to the north-west, extended northwards in 1799-1800 and 1809, with 1845 pattern store at south-east end, on site of 1799 sand bins, wider late C19 pattern store and pattern shop built above. To the north of the original foundry a large erecting shop was added in 1850. EXTERIOR: 20 bays 3 tiers of segmentally arched windows, some blocked, below corbelled brick eaves. The gable ends have large blocked round arched openings with 3 oculi above.
INTERIOR: two orders of blind arches in the walls with buttresses between, at the east end is the casting pit arid boring mill, on the north side of the original foundry a long vaulted brick tunnel leading to the
long range of vaulted pattern stores to the north-west. HISTORY: in 1794 Matthew Boulton &James Watt established the firm of Boulton & Watt, and in 1794-95 they built the Soho Foundry to manufacture steam engines more efficiently. Matthew Boulton had required a power source for his earlier factory (the Soho Manufactory, demolished 1860) and James Watt had been called in to act as a consultant, eventually resulting in their historic partnership. At the new Soho Foundry Boulton and Watt produced, for the first time, complete steam engines, making and assembling all the separate components on one site.
From 1798 the foundry manager was William Murdock, engineer and inventor of gas-lighting, which was installed at the Soho Foundry from 1800-03, making it one of the earliest factories to be lit by gas-light.
Listing NGR: SP0340888841
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 461800
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Legal
This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.
Map
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 07-Jun-2026 at 23:37:33.
Download a full scale map (PDF)End of official list entry
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