Description

Locomotive and engineering works, comprising 8 ranges of buildings: circa 1906 2-storey and attic, 5-bay office range with circa 1876 2-storey and attic, 10-bay and 1851 6-bay range adjoining. Further circa 1890 2-storey, 4-bay range with circa 1860 2-storey, 19-bay range to south. 3 further erecting shops added 1895 - 1905. Offices red brick with ashlar and red sandstone dressings, ranges mostly rubble built with ashlar dressings, and white and yellow brick rear workshops.

N (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION (West Langlands Street): circa 1906, 5-bay office to left. Arched doorway central to bays 2 & 3 with brick and glazing in-fill to left and door to right, semi-circular glazed fanlight above; single window to right, pair of bipartite windows to far right, bipartite window to left of door. Single window to 1st bay of 1st floor, 4 regularly placed bipartite windows to right spaced by brick pilasters leading to stone lintel courses, projecting eaves course set high above. Small arched 2-leaf timber door to extreme left of elevation with corbelled 5-light angle turret to 1st floor. Remainder of street frontage comprising uniform 2-storey works with 10-bay fitting shop (partially rebuilt after 1876 fire) with door in ground floor right bay, 6-bay range beyond (built 1851): pair of square windows to bays 1 & 2 ground floor, arched tripartite window to central bays with further tripartite window with cast-iron lintel to right. 4-bay gable end to right return: tripartite widow with cast-iron lintel to ground floor with small window to flanks; 4 regularly placed bays to 1st floor; 3 bays to attic level with now blind arched window to gablehead.

W ELEVATION (North Hamilton Street): circa 1890 in-fill with 4 unusually tall windows adjoining rear of 1851 N range to left and circa 1860 19-bay range to right. 19-bay range: 2-storey elevation lighting high single storey interior, 6-bay right return elevation (to Park Street) with doorway ground floor left bay.

S (REAR) ELEVATION (Park Street): high brick gable walled metal shed with large double height door to left and pair of narrow double height multi-paned lights to right; adjoining North Hamilton Street elevation to left return; pair of lower brick shed with three narrow bays to each adjoining to right.

E ELEVATION: gable end consisting open plan ground floor with giant cast-iron lintel stretching length of elevation; canted oriel off-centre left with narrow window to flanks at 1st floor; pair of centrally placed bipartites to attic level with small round window above each. Metal roofed vehicle shed to left behind boundary wall and sliding metal gate. Pair of tracks running diagonally across road to firm's other site.

35-paned casement windows to 1851 & 1860's range with some opening sashes to rear. 3-pane sash and case windows to office with single upper pane and paired lower panes. Piended grey slate roof with slated dormers to NW and multi-paned roof lights to N and some corrugated sheeting roofs to workshops. Piended slate roof to office with double height cast-iron sign: OFFICES with scroll flanking, ANDREW BARCLAY SONS & CO LD below. Cast-iron rainwater goods. Brick stacks to office, low stone stack to S of 1860's range.

INTERIOR: offices to later building; 4-bays of double height erecting shops, machine shops and workshops aligned N - S. From E -W: c1860 timber queen post roof on cast-iron I-section stanchions and cast-iron crane rails, two with particularly wide spans being trussed by wrought-iron and a parallel girder respectively. Steel roof trusses to the remainder, on (2nd bay) tall cast-iron stanchions (3rd bay steel stanchion, and contemporary riveted travelling crane, (5th bay) cast-iron stanchions). Some original fittings intact, including cast-iron machinery and a very rare crane lift.

Statement of Interest

Sited principally on West Langlands Street is this factory which held the honour of being the last locomotive builders in Scotland. The Andrew Barclay Sons and Co. Ltd was established in 1840 on the other side of North Hamilton Street. The firm became internationally renowned for their "pug" locomotives and colliery machines. They were also pioneers of "fireless" locomotives The first workshop was built on this site in 1851 and has been gradually added to. A fire partially burnt the West Langland Street elevation in 1876 but the gap was soon rebuilt. The dormer to be seen either side of the W gable provided light to the attic space that was used by Andrew Barclay as an observatory. Adjacent to the office block there are 2 sets of railway lines which cross the road. They were used to take 2 different gauges of engines across to the yard opposite. The different details of each erecting shop illustrates the evolution in three or four stages of the works from courtyard quadrangle to a regular series of covered workshops. This is the only engineering works extant in Scotland that has cast-iron crane rails.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17791808

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

• 
  England's Post-War Listed Buildings
• 
  Hertfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Kent: North East and East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cambridgeshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Maintaining and Repairing Old Houses: A Guide to Conservation, Sustainability and Economy
• 
  Period Property Manual (New Ed)