Details
784-1/14/591
14-MAY-70
SHEFFIELD
PENISTONE ROAD
(East side)
GLOBE WORKS
II*
Purpose-built cutlery and edge tool works incorporating owner's house, now offices and workshops. Built in 1825 by Messrs G A Wall, with later C19 workshop ranges. Partially demolished c1970 and fire damaged in 1978. Subsequently restored between 1988 and 1990.
MATERIALS: Coursed squared stone and brick, with ashlar dressings, slate roofs (except for roof of five-bay range facing narrow courtyard on north-west side of site which has an asbestos roof), stone and brick stacks.
PLAN: Triple courtyard plan. Large rectangular site fronting east side of Penistone Road. Front range on Penistone Road. Rectangular courtyard to rear of front range with workshop ranges to sides and cross range (now partially demolished) between main courtyard and second courtyard to north east. A central covered cart entrance in the cross range originally linked the two yards. Workshop range and engine house on north-west side of second courtyard. (Second courtyard was large rectangular shape, with two boilers and free-standing building, but now south-eastern side belongs to adjacent Cornish Works and is separated off by a brick wall). Covered cart entrance, with workshop over, at north end of second yard links it with narrow courtyard running along north-west boundary wall. Two workshop ranges built back-to-back with two ranges on north-west side of main and second courtyards respectively.
EXTERIOR: Nine-bay front range of coursed squared stone with ashlar dressings in the Classical Revival style. Two storeys with a basement and central attic storey. Higher and slightly projecting pedimented centre of three bays, flanked by two bays, and beyond, slightly projecting pedimented pavilions. Front has rusticated basement, sill bands, ground-floor impost band, and cornice. First floor has six-over-six light sash windows flanked by short, paired Ionic pilasters carrying shallow segmental arches. Ground floor has three-over-six light round-headed sashes, and basement has similar windows with segmental-arched heads. The central attic has three six-pane sashes. Right return (south-west side elevation) has three first-floor six-over-six light sash windows, that to the right being smaller. Three-over-six light round-headed sash window in first bay of ground floor. Central doorway with half-glazed door with fielded mouldings and fanlight beneath semi-circular Doric portico. Approached by C20 ramp replacing original steps and ramp. To its right, at basement level, is a covered cart entrance with depressed arch, imposts and keystone. At the rear is a central, slate-hung, overhanging gable, renewed in 1989, with four glazing bar windows. Below it is an L-plan external stone staircase. On right, north-west side of rear elevation is a three-storey, three-bay wing with a rounded right corner which projects slightly into the yard. Renewed three-over-six light sash windows on the ground floor and six-over-six light sashes above, with an enlarged hoist door in the central bay of the second floor. Second L-plan external staircase in right corner of rear elevation.
Attached to the rear of the south-east corner of the front range is a three-storey workshop range, flanking the south-east side of the main courtyard. It is built of squared stone coursed through from the front range on the external elevation. The first and second floors of the external elevation have four closely spaced windows with a similar, more widely spaced, window at the east end (ground floor not visible). The second floor also has a smaller inserted window at the east end. Windows are mainly four-light casements without glazing bars, and projecting stone sills and stone lintels, wedge-shaped on the second floor. The east end of the courtyard elevation has a brick gable wall, formerly an internal wall of the partially demolished cross range. The first floor has three similar, closely spaced casement windows, with a door with sidelight to the right, and four similar windows above, the right one blocked. On the ground floor are two C20 garage doors.
Attached to the rear of the north-east corner of the front range is a five-bay workshop range, flanking north-west side of the main courtyard. It is built of squared stone bonded with the adjoining cross workshop range. Originally of three floors, the second storey of both ranges had been demolished by 1970 and rebuilt c1988-90. The five-bay range has five-light glazing bar casements on the upper floors and on the ground floor, from the left, two three-light glazing bar casements, a window divided by an off-centre mullion into a two-light and a three-light glazing bar casement, and a four-light casement to the right. Projecting sills with wedge lintels on the ground floor and monolithic stone lintels on the first floor. There is a covered walkway in the north corner through to the narrow, north-west yard. The cross workshop range is squared stone to the main courtyard elevation, with a brick rear elevation facing into the second courtyard. It is now of four bays, the central cart entrance and that part of the building to its south east having been demolished prior to 1970. On the ground floor are four original hand forges with a row of four doorways, each with an adjacent window. The doorways in the second and third bays have been blocked and the second-bay window altered to a round-headed form. Both windows and doorways have monolithic stone lintels, with projecting stone window sills on the ground floor and a sill band on the first floor. The upper floors have four five-light glazing bar casements, with two-light casements on the ground floor. The rear elevation has projecting brick stacks between the bays for forge hearths, and there are two ridge stacks. The partially rebuilt outer gable wall shows evidence of two bearing boxes at first-floor level.
Brick workshop range built back-to-back with the workshop range on the north-west side of the main courtyard. Present second storey was rebuilt c1988-90. Projecting brick stacks on ground floor.
Two further back-to-back ranges beyond of two storeys, one facing south east into the second courtyard, the other facing north west into the narrow courtyard. The south-east facing range is of four bays and has been rendered, with a double-pitched slate roof. It has large, three-light windows on both floors, with glazing bars on the first floor. The window in bay one of the first floor has been reduced in height, and a hoist doorway inserted in the third bay. The five-bay range to its rear is built of brick with squared stone quoining at its west corner, and a mono-pitch asbestos roof with continuous row of skylights to its front elevation. Ground floor has segmental-arched openings which originally reached down to the ground. On the first floor are large windows with soldier lintels, the window frames have been removed.
Adjoining the north-east side of these ranges is a single-bay engine house with a tall round-headed window facing into the second courtyard. The roof has been truncated and is now mono-pitch, leaning against the workshop ranges. On the north-east side of the engine house is a two-storey brick building with a cart entrance linking the second courtyard and the narrow courtyard, and workshops above reached by external steps at its west corner.
INTERIOR: Features of note in the front range include a cantilevered wooden stair with cast-iron lotus balusters and moulded handrail, and a coffered domed ceiling with central skylight above. The main rooms have moulded and enriched cornices and span beams, with several fielded six-panelled doors.
The two back-to-back ranges adjoining the engine house both have fire-proof brick-vaulted ground floors with cast-iron semi-circular beams supported on circular columns. The dividing walls between the ranges and the engine house have large openings with heavy stone surrounds for bearing boxes for primary power transmission from the adjacent engine.
The beam floor of the engine house has been floored over, but the ashlar blocks which would have supported the entablature beam remain in the side walls.
SOURCES
English Heritage: `One Great Workshop': The Buildings of the Sheffield Metal Trades (February 2000, unpublished analysis of research), English Heritage: `One Great Workshop': The Buildings of the Sheffield Metal Trades (2001), Globe Works, Penistone Road, Sheffield NBR No.98234.
SUMMARY OF IMPORTANCE
Globe Works was identified as being of special architectural and historic interest by English Heritage during a thematic survey undertaken to assess the best surviving examples of buildings associated with Sheffield's metal manufacturing and metal working trades. It was identified as being of particular importance as the earliest known surviving purpose-built integrated cutlery and edge tool works to retain both front display range and workshop ranges.
Large purpose-built cutlery and edge tool works are very distinctive to the industrial identity of Sheffield, which during the C19 became known throughout the world as a centre of excellence in the manufacturing and processing of steel. Against the loss of many such buildings in the late C20 due to the severe decline of the industry, Globe Works is a highly significant survivor at the vanguard of such integrated urban works. It demonstrates the layout and building types of such a complex, including rare examples of specific workshop types as well as the more generic cutlers' workshop. Approximately eight sites in Sheffield survive retaining evidence of individual hand forges or grinding hulls (rooms), or both. Globe Works has four hand forges, and the only known remaining example of urban back-to-back grinding hulls. The complex clearly meets the criteria for listing of pre-1840 industrial buildings at a national level. The early date of the works, architectural quality of the architect-designed front range, survival of hand forges and particular design of the grinding hulls justify the Upgrading of Globe Works to II* from the present Grade II listing in the light of an enhanced appreciation and understanding of Sheffield's industrial metal-working buildings. Globe Works also has strong Group Value with the adjacent Wharncliffe Works, Green Lane, Cornish Works and Cornish Place on Cornish Street, Brooklyn Works, Green Lane Works, and The Former Ball Inn on Green Lane, Ball Street Bridge, Kelham Weir, William Brothers of Sheffield (former Ebenezer Wesleyan Chapel), South Parade, and The Fat Cat Public House, Alma Street.
