Former office block of the Scotch Foundry

Summary

The former office block of the Scotch Foundry, Armley, of 1932 by A Drake in an Art Deco style.

Reasons for Designation

The former office block is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* for its distinct exterior in an Art Deco style, with a simple, clean-lined symmetrical frontage in artificial stone with a wide parapet and tall, metal-framed windows;
* for the quality of its interiors, which include terrazzo floors, tiled dados and leaded light windows, panelled doors, staircases and a passenger lift, as well as for its planform, which includes a double-height drawing office as well as private offices.
Group value:

* for its strong functional, visual and historical relationship with the adjacent former warehouse of the Scotch Foundry, demonstrating the extent and nature of the operations across the site.

History

The Scotch Foundry was founded by the firm of Mathieson, Wilson and Company in 1888. The foundry was a joint venture between the gas apparatus manufacturer Charles Wilson and Sons (‘Wilsons’), and the owners of the Springfield Foundry in Falkirk, where Wilsons’ castings had previously been made. The first casting at the foundry was made on 14 May 1888, and the anniversary was celebrated with a party in the pattern shop, above the enamelling shop. By 1893 the firm was also making iron-framed buildings, and gates and railings.

Charles Wilson began in business as an ironmonger in 1857 and specialised in heated baths and cooking stoves, as well as gas lighting and fires. His sons became partners in 1872. Wilsons’ business continued to operate from its Carlton Works on Exeter Place off Woodhouse Lane in the city centre until 1898, when a new Carlton Works was built on Canal Road, south of the railway line running behind the Scotch Foundry. In 1889, Charles Wilson and Sons merged with Mathieson, Wilson and Company to form a public limited company called Wilsons and Mathiesons. In 1897, they built a warehouse fronting onto Forge Lane.

Historic maps and aerial photographs show that the foundry itself once covered a large site to the south of Forge Lane, which extended to nearly three hectares, although comparison with the extant buildings show that nearly all the process buildings have now been removed or dramatically altered. In 1925, Mathieson, Wilson and Company became a subsidiary of Radiation Ltd, a domestic gas stove and fire manufacturer.

In 1932, the firm added a new office block to the foundry site, to the west of the warehouse on Forge Lane. It was designed by A Drake and was opened by HRH Prince George, the Duke of Kent. The firm continued to operate until about 1980. The warehouse and office block are currently (2024) used by a contract cleaning and training company.

Details

The former office block of the Scotch Foundry, Armley, of 1932 by A Drake in an Art Deco style.

MATERIALS: artificial stone, red brick and a steel frame, with terrazzo floors.

PLAN: standing on a sandstone outcrop overlooking the Leeds and Liverpool Canal. The office block is sub-rectangular in plan, aligned north-south, and abuts the warehouse at the north-east corner.

An internal first-floor walkway* that connects the office block with the warehouse is not of special interest and is excluded from the listing.

EXTERIOR: the front façade faces north and is of three storeys and three bays, constructed of artificial stone, in Art Deco style, with an ashlar plinth (taller at the right due to falling ground levels), rusticated ground floor, plat band, ashlar upper floors with full-height openings, and a parapet, with a very shallow central pediment.

The outer bays project slightly and have a ribbed architrave with paterae, and a single window to each floor. The windows are metal-framed. The central bay, under the pediment, has a central door with a moulded surround and flanking lights; above are three windows per floor, the outer ones slightly narrower.

The west façade is in two linked parts, and in red brick with artificial-stone dressings and a tall parapet. The left part has a projecting three-window centre under a raised parapet, with full-height openings spanning the upper two floors, and windows matching those of the front façade. There is a smaller first-floor window to the right. Due to falling ground at the left it has a full-height ashlar ground floor here, diminishing to a plinth at the right-hand side. The right part is set back slightly and has five tall, arched windows with surrounds and keystones, and metal-framed windows; the outer two windows are in bays that project slightly. The link has a lower parapet, and a slender full-height window with surround. Projecting slightly to the right is a blind side wall. This component has a flat roof and forms an L-shape, wrapping around the south and rear section of the east side of the building. The rear section of the east elevation has metal-framed windows to the upper floors with moulded brick sills and imitation stone lintels.

INTERIOR: the vestibule, entrance lobby and circulation areas have terrazzo floors, tiled dadoes and cornices; timber partitions with glazed lights and glazed panelled doors; two-panelled doors to the main rooms with moulded architraves; and radiators with hoods. The entrance lobby itself is accessed through a revolving door with a panelled enclosure and glazed panelled doors. The main stair wraps around a metal lift cage, and has a cast-iron balustrade with an Art Deco geometric design to the lower section and a continuous moulded timber handrail. It is lit by metal-framed windows to the east elevation with leaded lights, diamond motifs and obscure glass. The lift has a panelled wooden interior and a control panel featuring the manufacturer’s name: ‘Rawlinsons Ltd Lifts Leeds’. Through a door within the vestibule is a second, private staircase which gives direct access to a series of principal offices on the first floor at the front of building. Some of the offices to the first floor have modern panelling to the walls, reportedly a replacement of an original feature.

A large office to the second floor (now divided by partitions) has cornicing and two large skylights with leaded lights, geometric motifs and obscure glass. The rear part of the building has a double-height drawing office with a barrel-vaulted ceiling with ventilation roses and skylights with leaded lights. There is a gallery to the left-hand side, with later partitions concealing upper offices. Original glazed partitions remain to the offices beneath the gallery, and to a corner office within the drawing room itself. There are strong rooms at the south end of each floor, with doors dated 1932. A staircase to the east of the strong rooms is lit by a skylight and has iron balusters with diamond motifs and a moulded timber handrail. It leads up to a secondary first-floor walkway* (the walkway is not of special interest) which connects the office block with the warehouse.

The former office block interconnects with the former warehouse of the Scotch Foundry at first floor level and second floor level at the north end of the east elevation.

*Pursuant to s1 (5A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 (“the Act”) it is declared that the first-floor walkway which connects the office block with the warehouse is not of special architectural or historic interest, however, any works which have the potential to affect the character of the listed building as a building of special architectural or historic interest may still require Listed Building Consent and this is a matter for the Local Planning Authority to determine.

Sources

Books and journals
Wrathmell, S, Minnis, J, Pevsner Architectural Guides: Leeds, (2005), 207
Pevsner, N, Leach, P, The Buildings of England: Yorkshire: The West Riding: Leeds, Bradford and the North, (2009), 568
White, William, Directory of the West Riding of Yorkshire, (1870), 242, 318-321
Kelly, ER, Directory of the West Riding of Yorkshire Pt 2 (Places L-Y), (1881), 834
London Printing and Engraving Company, , The Century's Progress, (1893), 156-157
Official Souvenir Handbook of the Leeds Industrial Exhibition held in the Town Hall, Victoria Square, (1926), 10-13

Websites
Historic aerial photographs EPW017307, EPW020772, EAW035539 and EAW035544, accessed 01/07/24 from https://www.britainfromabove.org.uk
Information on Charles Wilson and Sons, Mathieson Wilson and Co, and Wilsons and Mathiesons, accessed 01/07/24 from https://www.gracesguide.co.uk

Other
Description of Prince George opening the office building, in the Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer, 28/09/1932
Plans of New Storage Rooms etc. Scotch Foundry, Armley, Leeds, Approved 1897

End of official list entry

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