Summary
Former offices of an iron company, now flats, designed in 1881 and 1882 and built in 1889, by Philip Webb in Arts and Crafts classical style, with alterations of 1906 by George Jack.
Reasons for Designation
7 Zetland Road (Webb House), an ironmaster’s offices of 1889, now converted to residential use, is listed at Grade II* for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest:
* it is an excellent example of a non-domestic design by the highly influential Arts and Crafts architect Philip Webb, a co-founder of William Morris’s interior design company;
* it retains many typical features of Webb’s work, including a top-lit stair hall with glazed partitions borrowing light, attenuated pilasters, and the use of small-grid ‘trellis’ patterns, especially on stair balustrades;
* the surviving elements of the original plan form and timber and plaster detailing are also important examples of Webb’s design.
Historic interest:
* as a purpose-built headquarters of an iron-founding company, it reflects the strong historic association of Middlesbrough with the iron industry.
History
7 Zetland Road (Webb House) was built from 1889 as the offices of Bell Brothers, replacing earlier townhouses that had been converted for office use. The design was commissioned in 1881 by the ironmaster Hugh Bell from the noted Arts and Crafts architect Philip Webb and amended in 1882, but a slump in the iron trade delayed construction. Local builder John Johnson undertook the work, which was completed early in 1891. Webb is particularly noted for his houses and the design of 7 Zetland Road includes many typical features of Webb’s houses, including a top-lit stair hall with glazed partitions borrowing light, attenuated pilasters, and the use of small-grid ‘trellis’ patterns (especially on stair balustrades – here in iron rather than the more typical timber), whose use by Webb preceded Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s exploitation of simple grids by several decades.
In 1906 George Jack (Webb’s chief assistant until Webb retired in 1900), added an additional storey to the rear of the building to create further attic offices and altered the chimney tops.
The steel producer Dorman Long gradually became a part owner of Bell Bros from 1899, and the two companies merged in 1923. Dorman Long was succeeded by British Steel, who moved out of the building in 1977. Middlesbrough Council bought the building for a nominal sum and it was cleared of dry rot and converted in the 1980s into a hostel and workshops for people with special needs, known as Webb House. In 2001 it was further repaired and converted into supported-living flats, when ovolo-moulded skirtings were installed in many spaces, and the spiral service stair between the ground and first floors was removed. New partitions were also inserted within the former office spaces.
Philip Webb (1831-1915) was a co-founder of William Morris’ interior design company (having earlier supervised Morris’ architectural training for George Edmund Street), and designed all of the firm’s architectural fittings, most of the furniture and other products, such as stained glass. His design of Red House (1859) in Bexleyheath, for which Morris was the client, is generally considered the first Arts and Crafts house, and his designs were highly influential, with several of his buildings listed at high grades. He also co-founded the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings. 7 Zetland Road was one of only a few non-domestic commissions Webb undertook: the others including solicitors’ offices at 19 Lincoln’s Inn Fields (Grade II, National Heritage List for England (NHLE) entry 1379330) and the new Church of St Martin in Brampton (Grade I, NHLE entry 1137170).
Details
Former offices of an iron company, now flats, designed in 1881 and 1882 and built in 1889, by Philip Webb, for Hugh Bell of Bell Bros. Altered and extended in 1906 by George Jack, with further alterations. Arts and Crafts classical style.
MATERIALS: local Scarth Nick sandstone, Linthorpe bricks, iron and steel frame and roof structure, red clay tile roof, columns of Hopton Wood (Derbs) stone, timber sash windows.
PLAN: C-plan with top-lit atrium in the angle.
EXTERIOR: two storeys, with basement and attic. The main façade faces north onto Zetland Road. It is symmetrical, with a three-bay ground floor and attic, and seven-bay first floor and basement, with ground-floor sill band, prominent first-floor cornice and attic parapet with concave-sided gables.
The raised ground floor comprises a heavily-moulded arcade with pierced spandrels, springing from slender hexagonal pilasters with trumpet capitals, and narrow impost strings. The pillars flanking the central entrance have shields enriched with raised lettering: ‘B 1891’ and ‘BB’. The entrance is deeply recessed behind a round-headed opening beyond the outer arch, and is reached by nine stone steps. It has panelled double doors, under a mullioned-and-transomed fanlight. The steps are overlooked by 15-pane sash windows in the splayed reveals; the risers have glass bricks lighting the basement. The flanking bays each have a recessed, shallow-canted three-light window, with 18-pane fixed lights and similar pilasters at the angles, and stepped sills. The basement is of random-bond brickwork, with windows deeply recessed behind grilles, in surrounds with stepped segment vaults.
Over the first floor is a dentilled cornice-band. The first floor has 10-pane fixed-light windows in the end bays (with a louvre in the top of the right-hand one), flanking a colonnade of five bays with moulded bases and waterleaf capitals, and 15-pane sash windows. Above is a deep, bracketed cornice. Above this is the attic, which is rendered with moulded stone copings. Each bay has a two-light mullioned sash window (eight panes per window), recessed in a round-headed opening, with blind tympana; each window is flanked by buttresses with scrolled ramped tops. Between the bays and at either end are square rainwater openings with surrounds. Rendered end and off-centre ridge stacks with corbelled brick tops, and coped side gables with kneelers are visible.
The (south) rear façade is of eight bays. It has a brick basement (in English Garden Wall bond) and is roughcast rendered above, with stone sill bands. The basement has nine irregularly-spaced segment-headed windows mostly with iron grilles, the left two being lower. The right-hand bay is recessed and has a modern door under a recessed segmental head. The ground floor has a stepped sill band and a seven-bay round-headed arcade of slender pilasters; recessed within this are segment-headed windows (altered in bays two to five, 15-pane sash windows in bays one, six and seven). Bay eight has none of these features, and a blocked square surround. A dentilled first-floor sill band spans the arcade. The first floor has an eight-bay segmental arcade on corbel imposts, with similar recessed sash windows (but blind in bays five and eight). The attic is set back above a slender sill band, with 12-pane sashes except for bays four (blind) and eight (blocked oculus). Brick corbelled chimney stacks are visible to the left-of-centre at the ridge, and set back at the right in a rear gable of the front range.
INTERIOR: retaining the principal plan of central hallway and stair, with glazed timber panels overlooking from the landings, but with altered room plans.
The entrance leads to a barrel-vaulted lobby, with a glazed partition and doors to the stair hall. The stair hall is top-lit and retains the original staircase with clustered-column newel, ramped, channelled timber handrail, and iron balustrades in Webb’s signature trellis pattern; it is also thought to retain its woodblock treads beneath the modern carpet, and some original skirtings. The glazed partitions are mostly replacements with larger-paned glazing, although the first-floor landing partition is thought to retain its original lower timber panels.
The parquet floors are also thought to survive beneath modern coverings, and there are some original timber mouldings, including the arch imposts and rails in the stair hall, the sill and chair rail in the west office on the ground floor, and skirting and dado in this room’s lobby. Plaster cornices also survive and some may remain above suspended ceilings. Sash windows have been shortened in bedrooms.
A full basement retains most of its plan, and openings with stopped rounded jambs. A secondary stair between the first and second floors also survives, with closed string, channelled handrail and acorn finials to most newels. Features thought to survive in the first-floor offices include a shouldered-arched alcove, dado panelling, cornicing, bookcase cupboards and a fireplace with over-mantel. The glazed roof of the stair hall has been replaced, but is still supported by the original slender steel trusses, with a basket-arched lower chord that matches an arched recess in the end wall.
