Description

Archibald Leitch, engineer with Brand and Lithgow, architects. Early ferro-concrete pattern store, built on the Hennebique system. Built 1903-1904 for Alley and MacLellan, engineers. 4 storeys, 12 x 3 bays; concrete panel walls, large metal-framed windows, off-centre entrance bay, wide door with 3 tall lights over added circa 1930; classical cornice, flat roof.

REAR: similar, with fire escape cantilevered out on ornate cast-iron brackets.

INTERIOR: free of columns, the load entirely carried by the externally expressed fram. Top floor has extra concrete cross pieces to accommodate shelves of pattern store.

Statement of Interest

Neglected condition (1989). The first fully reinforced concrete building havinng a ferro-concrete frame and panels, and the third oldest to survive in the UK. This building's trabeated form anticipates the American-inspired daylight factories by Albert Kahn, unlike any similar building in England.

The foundry to the rear is steel framed and of lesser architectural interest. A light railway was used within the foundry. Alley and MacLellan built around 500 'knock down' ships (dismantled and reassembled on inland waters) and developed the Sentinel steam lorry, produced at their branches at Shrewsbury and Worcester. Owned form 1918-37 by Beardmores, and passed to the Weir Group in 1960.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17568932

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.

Recommended Books

• 
  The green guide for historic buildings: how to improve the environmental performance of listed and historic buildings
• 
  [(Shropshire)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1958)
• 
  London 1: The City of London: City of London v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Gloucestershire 2: The Vale and The Forest of Dean: Vale and Forest of Dean Pt. 2 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)