Description

SHEFFIELD

784-1/0/10111 TRAFALGAR STREET
21-JUN-07 Aberdeen Works

II
Purpose-built silver and electro-plate works. 1883 and late C19. Red brick with stone dressings, brick stacks, and slate roofs.

PLAN: U-shape plan around a narrow courtyard accessed from Division Street to the north: main range to west, facing Trafalgar Street, ranges to south and east of yard.

EXTERIOR: Front (west) office and workshop range of 3 storeys over basement (increasingly visible to south as road slopes downhill), 12 bays wide on top floor, 9 bays wide on ground and 1st floors. Front elevation built in Flemish bond. 2 gable stacks. Stone capped plinth to basement, stone sill bands, and stone quoining. Tri-partite window on 1st floor of north end bay with stone surround incorporating central pedimented lintel carved with the date and initials `1882 FH'. 2-light glazing bar central frame and single-light side frames, all with top-opening lights. Tri-partite window on ground floor of north end bay with segmental arched brick heads and brick piers. 6-pane central frame and 3-pane side frames, all with top-opening lights. Other windows have segmental arched heads. Ground and 1st-floor windows have 6-pane frames with top-opening lights. 2nd-floor windows have 2-light glazing bar frames with top-opening lights. Basement has 3 windows (now blocked) with iron grilles in front. Doorway in 2nd bay from left, north end has stone surround with cornice, and four-panelled door with overlight. Above the 1st-floor windows is an embossed name plaque reading ABERDEEN WORKS. There are a number of ventilation grilles in the window piers and above the ground and 1st-floor windows (some blocked).

Yard elevation descends under an outshut to 2 storeys, 8 bays wide, with 3 stacks. Closely-spaced windows with segmental arched heads and stone sills. 1st-floor windows in 6th, 7th and 8th bays from the left, south end have six-over-six pane hung sashes, the rest two-light glazing bar casements with top-opening lights. Ground-floor windows have modern multi-pane casements, and 3 doorways, those in 1st and 4th bays formerly windows.

South workshop range: 2 storeys abutting main range, 3 bays wide, with double-pitched slate roof. First floor has 3 large windows with stone sills and lintels. Windows in 1st and 2nd bays from the left, east end have multi-pane casements with top-opening lights, and window 3rd bay has an eight-over-eight pane hung-sash frame. The ground floor has 3 windows with modern multi-pane casements. At the west end is a recessed doorway and stone steps up to the 1st floor.

East workshop range: 2 storeys, 8 bays wide, with straight joint between 1st and 2nd bays from left, north end, and 6th and 7th bays (7th and 8th bays are more recent infill replacing engine and boiler house). Mono-pitch slate roof built against rear walls of blind-back houses facing Canning Street. 1st-floor windows of 5 central bays have stone sills, segmental arched heads, and multi-pane frames with top-opening lights. Bay 1 has a wide multi-pane window, with 2 two-light glazing bar windows in 7th and 8th bays. Ground floor of 1st bay has a window with stone sill and segmental arched head, with a modern multi-pane casement, and adjacent doorway. Bays 2 to 6 have 3 wide multi-pane windows and 2 doorways, and bays 7 and 8 have a doorway and wide multi-paned window.

INTERIOR: Only the interior of the main (west) range was inspected. The main entrance doorway (in Trafalgar Street) opens into a narrow hall and stairwell. Stair has stone steps, square balusters and moulded wooden handrail with turned newel post. Features of note include fireplaces, moulded cornice, gas brackets and safe incorporating storage cupboards and drawers in the first-floor office (with the dated and initialled window surround), work benches beneath workshop windows, original four-panelled doors and plain plank doors, a hand forge at the northern end of the yard elevation.

HISTORY: The main range of Aberdeen Works is dated 1883 and the complex was built within a developed urban landscape, which included a narrow pre-existing yard accessed from Division Street and six early C19 blind-back houses on Canning Street. The initials FH on the main range refer to Francis Howard, an electro-plate and silver manufacturer, who occupied the building from its construction into the early C20. The complex is still owned by the Howard family who are still in a similar line of business.

SOURCES: `One Great Workshop': the Buildings of the Sheffield Metal Trades', English Heritage February 2000 (unpublished analysis of research), English Heritage 2001 `One Great Workshop': the Buildings of the Sheffield Metal Trades', London, `Aberdeen Works, Trafalgar Street, Sheffield', NBR No. 98204, 1998.

SUMMARY OF IMPORTANCE
Aberdeen Works is a purpose-built silver and electro-plate works dated 1883. It was assessed as part of a thematic survey carried out by English Heritage to identify the best surviving examples of buildings associated with Sheffield's metal manufacturing and metal working trades. It comprises a largely intact double-depth main range of 3 storeys and basement to the street elevation, containing offices and workshops, and a 2-storey yard elevation, containing a hand forge and workshops. Within the yard, accessed from Division Street, it also has 2-storey south and east workshop ranges, which have been converted to shops. Despite these alterations, and the loss of its power plant, which stood at the south end of the east range, sufficient survives to retain the complex's architectural and historical integrity. This type of urban works, dating from the height of prosperity in the metal trades, is very distinctive to the industrial identity of Sheffield, an industrial community recognised as being of international significance. Against the loss of many such buildings in the late C20, due to the severe decline of the industry, Aberdeen Works survives relatively intact, the visual prominence of its unaltered main range on Trafalgar Street serving as a reminder of the originally industrial character of this central locality. As an urban industrial site which clearly expresses a regional specialisation, highlighting the nature of metal working trades in Sheffield, Aberdeen Works meets the criteria for listing in a national context.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26671359

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

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