Former Shipley HMRC office

Summary

Government computing and office building, begun in 1976 and opened in 1978, by the Property Services Agency.

Reasons for Designation

Shipley HMRC, a computing and office building begun in 1976 for the Inland Revenue, is not listed for the following principal reasons:

Degree of architectural interest:
* although of some design interest for its varied massing and striking forms, it is not sufficiently innovative, influential or sophisticated in terms of design and materials, given the great selectivity which needs to be applied for listing in this period;

* alterations, in particular to the entrance and reception area, have undermined the consistent design philosophy.

Degree of historic interest:
* it is not notably early or innovative in the history of purpose-built computing facilities.

History

In the mid-C19 the site comprised fields between the River Aire and the Leeds and Liverpool canal; to the west stood Dixon Mill, a water-powered corn and fulling mill. (The part of the car park which falls within the Saltaire World Heritage Site is known as Dixon’s Acre). By the late-C19 this mill had been replaced by a gas works, and allotments laid out at the other (eastern) side of the present site. The gas works was eventually replaced in the early C20 by the eastern end of the north block of Saltaire Mills (National Heritage List for England – NHLE – entry 1300710). The building (‘Shipley HMRC’) was first mapped on the 1982 1;10,000 Ordnance Survey (OS) map.

The site appears to have been selected in the early 1970s for the creation of an Inland Revenue (later Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, HMRC) computer centre. This was one of two centres built at the same time to serve the whole UK, the other being in Cumbernauld in Scotland, and opening in 1978. The sites were designed to facilitate the collection of national taxes through large computer installations employing over 1,000 people. They thus needed to be secure, and to combine data storage, data processing, general office provision, large-scale printing and posting, as well as welfare facilities for staff.

Shipley HMRC was designed by the Property Services Agency (PSA), which was established in 1972 and at the time had a monopoly on building and estate-managing government buildings, although it contracted some work to the private sector. The designer was Phil Morte, with Roy Lloyd acting as project architect; both worked in the PSA’s Directorate of Civil Accommodation. The Buildings of England guide describes the building, but names it as Crown House and attributes it to 1970 and the Robinson Partnership. That date, name and design attribution are however thought to correctly belong to the office on the corner of Victoria Street and Salts Mill Road, which was also formerly used by HMRC.

In contrast to the Cumbernauld centre with its plain rectangular blocks, the design at Shipley sought to unify the diverse functions required into a coherent whole, with a two-storey podium to a three-storey office block, and only the welfare block as a separate building. This massing, along with the polygonal footprints of all the buildings (perhaps inspired by the computing use – a similar footprint was used for part of the National Savings building in Blackpool, also opened in 1978, where the premium bonds computer ERNIE was housed), continuous horizontal glazing and a shared palette of materials, reinforced the unity of design. The multi-pyramid roof of the welfare block (especially visible from the north, across the River Aire) was designed to contrast with the horizontal emphasis elsewhere, which may have been influenced by the strong horizontal character of the mill buildings to the east and west. That roof was constructed by Rainham Timber Engineering, with leadwork by Norman And Underwood Ltd, and its soffit formed the ceiling to the sports courts below. The whole building was air-conditioned, and the computer centre was built with careful environmental control including airlock-lobbies, to prevent overheating of the equipment. The 30-month construction period is thought to have begun in 1975 or 1976, with computer operations beginning in 1978, at the same time as at Cumbernauld.

The design bears some resemblance to the National Archives building (formerly the Public Record Office) in Kew, which was also designed by the PSA around the same time, being built between 1973 and 1977. That building also has oversailing upper floors (there carried by projecting beams), strong horizontal emphasis and chamfered corners.

At an unknown date since it was photographed in 1978, the entrance has been remodelled. The original polygonal glazed aluminium reception in the foyer atrium was removed, along with the hexagonal column supporting the mezzanine. A circular column was installed closer to the angle in the mezzanine, with the reception counters meeting at this column. A similar column stands where a new inset revolving-door entrance has been installed at the south end of the foyer. New security barriers have also been installed. The hexagonal floor tiles are also thought to have been replaced by the current (2021) square tiles. In addition a sculpture by Judith Bluck, comprising a screen and group of three structures reminiscent of whale tails, has been removed (with the whale tails installed in the grounds). This is similar in character to Bluck’s sculptural fountain ‘The Crucible’ in Sheffield (also for the PSA), which is made of glass-reinforced polyester resin.

A major upgrade was carried out in 1996, with work continuing until around 2000. This largely comprised redecoration and plant refurbishment. Similar works were also carried out after flooding in 2015, with the addition of flood defences to the entrances.

The first computer used for business data-processing was probably that used by the catering firm J Lyons from 1951, which was running their payroll by 1953; Lyons went on to establish a computer company of their own. The Ministry of Work and Pensions was using computers from the 1950s, but not for large-scale processing, and not in purpose-built computing facilities (in 1960, for example, it was still testing using computers to calculate its own payroll). However, purpose-built computer data-processing centres were built substantially earlier than that at Shipley. The National Giro built an office and computerised data-processing complex in Bootle in 1968, for example (designed by the PSA’s predecessor, the Ministry of Works).

Judith Bluck (1936 -2011) became an associate member of the Royal Society of Sculptors in 1975 and a fellow in 1978. She began her career in engraving and progressed through design, photography and painting, before landing on sculpture as her true metier. Commercial commissions included a group of bronze sheep for the Milton Keynes corporation, ‘Horse Group’ for the ICI Heavy Organic Chemical site on Teesside and ‘Natural Force II’ for the entrance hall of the Yorkshire Building Society. Awards for her work include the bronze and silver medals of the Societe des Artistes Francais and The Otto Beit Medal (Royal Society of Sculptors).

Details

Government offices, 1976 to 1978, by Phil Morte and Roy Lloyd of the Property Services Agency.

MATERIALS: a concrete frame, aluminium windows, and a laminated timber roof clad in lead to the welfare block.

PLAN: two elongated hexagons with a link block, an irregular hexagonal block linked by a bridge, and a freestanding circular chimney.

EXTERIOR: standing on the south bank of the River Aire to the east of the Saltaire Conservation Area and World Heritage Site, with landscaped grounds and car parking.

The larger of the two elongated hexagons is the two-storey computer centre which also housed the distribution centre and stores, as well as the main plant. Each floor has a band of (mostly blind) glazing in original bronze aluminium frames with spandrel panels below, with a projecting band above of equal depth, of concrete facing panels which also form the soffits of the overhang. The concrete has a bush-hammered external finish with smooth margins. A metal-clad plant room occupies almost the full southern half of the roof. In the south-east corner, sliding doors access the loading dock for the distribution centre. The northern half of this building housed the data-processing centre. The data-processing centre is of similar appearance to the rest of the block but with office windows. It projects westwards at the north-west corner to form a link to the smaller, five-storey hexagonal office block. The link block is contiguous with the lower two floors of the office block.

The hexagonal structural columns of the office block form piloti supporting the upper three floors, which project beyond the lower two floors on all sides. The soffit of this overhang is channelled. The upper floors have the same finishes and detailing as the lower floors and adjacent block. A metal-clad hexagonal plant room stands on the roof with a wide shingle margin around it. At the south-west and north-west corners, polygonal upper-ground-floor office suites extend to just behind the columns, with terraces projecting as far as the plane of the walls of the upper floors; the terrace soffits are also channelled. In the west wall, an inserted triangular recess in the ground-floor glazing houses the main entrance, with a recent revolving door.

On the north side of the data-processing link, a first-floor glazed concrete footbridge carried on slender hexagonal columns accesses the welfare block. This is broadly six-sided but wider to the north where a balcony faces the river, and it has square bays to all but the north side (two each on the south-west and south-east sides). The bays are glazed with the same frames as the other blocks, rising full height from a very low riser, to meet the soffit of the overhanging roof. The roof is a highly-distinctive, complex design of 19 pyramids of differing sizes, clad in lead. To the east of the welfare block stands the slender cylindrical chimney, which rises from a circular concrete plinth and is comprised of vertically-channelled white concrete sections and has a metal cap with projecting flues.

INTERIOR: the construction uses beamless slab roof and floors, carried on a 9m triangular grid of mushroom-headed hexagonal columns. Replacement suspended ceilings and raised floors mostly conceal the column capitals and feet on the repeated open-plan floorplates, with central lift-and-stair tower. Partitions (some original PSA ‘method of building’ partitions) form smaller offices in various locations.

The entrance foyer has a mezzanine overlooked by the office suites with access to the terraces; the aluminium glazed partitions are thought to be original. The foyer gives access to the stair and lift lobbies. These are plain as are the stairs themselves, having only their original deep wooden handrails as decoration (the concrete stairs are covered with lino). The larger of the two data halls is open to the ceiling, and both retain some control cabinets and the raised floor that provided cabling access and ventilation. The welfare block retains the original canteen counters, white artificial-stone stairs, ground-floor bar and badminton hall, which is open to the soffit of the hollow roof pyramids. The data-processing centre has a small atrium with a terrace at first-floor level, with hexagonal planters; the atrium is an irregular hexagon formed of a triangle with chamfered corners. The double-height basement extends across the footprint and houses mostly replacement heating and ventilation plant.

SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: a small gatehouse guards the entrance to the loading bay. It has a polygonal footprint and a complex multi-pitch roof.

End of official list entry

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