GATEHOUSE AND ADJOINING OFFICE BUILDINGS AT SOHO FOUNDRY

GATEHOUSE AND ADJOINING OFFICE BUILDINGS AT SOHO FOUNDRY, FOUNDRY LANE

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

Overview

A gatehouse and office building designed by Buckland and Heywood for the Avery Company and built in 1925. The building is of red brick, laid in Flemish bond with stone dressings and concrete columns. There is a shallow, pantiled roof over the porch and a flat roof to the office range, behind the parapet. Read the official list entry to find out more.

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1392993
Date first listed:: 30-Oct-2008
List Entry Name:: GATEHOUSE AND ADJOINING OFFICE BUILDINGS AT SOHO FOUNDRY
Statutory Address:: GATEHOUSE AND ADJOINING OFFICE BUILDINGS AT SOHO FOUNDRY, FOUNDRY LANE

User submitted image — Uploaded by Richard Law 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

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:: 1392993
Date first listed:: 30-Oct-2008
List Entry Name:: GATEHOUSE AND ADJOINING OFFICE BUILDINGS AT SOHO FOUNDRY
Statutory Address 1:: GATEHOUSE AND ADJOINING OFFICE BUILDINGS AT SOHO FOUNDRY, FOUNDRY LANE

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:: GATEHOUSE AND ADJOINING OFFICE BUILDINGS AT SOHO FOUNDRY, 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:: SP0365588816

Reasons for Designation

The Gatehouse and adjoining Office Buildings at Soho Foundry, Smethwick, are designated for the following principal reasons:

* The building has strong architectural presence and was designed by the acknowledged Birmingham practice of Buckland and Haywood. * It celebrates the illustrious manufacturing history of the site. * It sits well with the other buildings on the site, in particular the Smethwick Office Row (Grade II) to which it is attached.

Details

SMETHWICK

1868/0/10089 FOUNDRY LANE 30-OCT-08 Gatehouse and Adjoining Office Buildin gs at Soho Foundry

GV II A gatehouse and office building designed by Buckland and Heywood for the Avery Company and built in 1925. The building is of red brick, laid in Flemish bond with stone dressings and concrete columns. There is a shallow, pantiled roof over the porch and a flat roof to the office range, behind the parapet.

EXTERIOR: The east front onto Foundry Road has a portico, of painted concrete, and has three bays, of which the central is widest. There are two octagonal pillars with pilasters in antis. All have simple moulded capitals and block bases and there is an entablature above. The wall behind has brick pilasters. To the centre is a cambered arch, above which is the lettering `SOHO FOUNDRY' and at either side the bays have metal-framed windows and between the floors are tablets inscribed with the name `AVERY' and the trade mark which shows the central pivot point of a weighing arm. Inset bands of pantiles are also used for decorative effect. To left of this is a single bay connecting the gate range to an earlier office building of the 1890s. To the right of the gateway are seven bays of the office block which has pilaster buttresses with chamfered angles and two light windows with a central moulded mullion and a thin stone surround. To the basement are paired lights with cambered heads. The north side has three slit windows to each floor. This and the rear, west side have a full basement which is exposed due to the fall in the land. The west side of the gateway has a trio of basket arched entrances, above which are metal-framed windows. Projecting at left of the gateway is the south side of the office block which has two bays divided by pilaster buttresses, as on the eastern front. Adjoined at left of this is the Smethwick Office Row (Grade II), including the former house of William Murdock. In front of the west front of the gateway is a large weighbridge, with metal surface marked `AVERY / BIRMINGHAM - ENGLAND'

INTERIOR: To the ground floor is a central passageway with glazed screen walls to the offices at either side. The staircases have simple stick balusters and square newels with panelled sides. One sizeable ground floor room in the office block, to the north of the gateway, has a ceiling whose cornice incorporates the motif which appears as the Avery trademark - a triangular balancing point at the centre of a beam weight. Also in the room is a mural frieze, depicting the opening of the Soho Foundry. This shows people in C18 dress. At the centre is an inscription `OPENING CEREMONY AT SOHO FOUNDRY BY MATTHEW BOULTON / 30 JANUARY 1796' and underneath is the inscription `I COME NOW AS THE FATHER OF SOHO TO CONSECRATE THIS PLACE AS ONE OF ITS BRANCHES. I ALSO COME TO GIVE IT A NAME AND MY BENEDICTION. I WILL, THEREFORE, PROCEED TO PURIFY THE WALLS OF IT BY THE SPRINKLING OF WINE, AND IN THE NAME OF VULCAN AND ALL THE GODS AND GODDESSES OF FIRE AND WATER I PRONOUNCE THE NAME OF IT SOHO FOUNDRY. MAY THAT NAME ENDURE FOR EVER AND EVER AND LET ALL THE PEOPLE SAY AMEN' Attached to the west is the Smethwick Office Row of former cottages, including the house of William Murdock which is designated at Grade II. Also attached, to the south, is an earlier single-storey office block of c. 1890s which is not included as part of this item.

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION: The Gatehouse and adjoining Office Buildings at Soho Foundry are listed grade II for the following principal reasons:

* The building has strong architectural presence and was designed by the acknowledged Birmingham practice of Buckland and Haywood. * It celebrates the illustrious manufacturing history of the site. * It sits well with the other buildings on the site, in particular the Smethwick Office Row (Grade II) to which it is attached.

SOURCES: Andy Foster, Birmingham, Pevsner Architectural Guides, 2005; P.Belford, G.Demidowicz and M.Hislop, An Historic Environment Assessment of the Soho Foundry, 2003.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:: 505339
Legacy System:: LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Foster, A, Pevsner Architectural Guides: Birmingham, (2016)

Legal

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