Description

Edward T Bellhouse and Company, produced by Eagle Foundry, Manchester, 1851. No 1 prefabricated warehouse pattern, built to serve as ballroom, now carpenters workshop. Corrugated iron sheets on concrete base and in framework of panelled, cast-iron pilasters with stylised capitals supporting cavetto corniced eaves gutter. Entrance in gabled end, now with sliding machinery door, with small-pane strip fanlight above. 7-bay sides, 4 each side windowed with flush, 16-pane timber casement windows; 2 modern, fixed-pane, horizontal windows inserted to left return elevation. Rear gable end, blank. Scalloped barge boards and finials. Corrugated roof with flush rooflights and decorative brattishing; gabled ventilator to mid ridge with brattishing.

Interior: lined with timber boarding; coombed roof, embrasured to rooflights.

Statement of Interest

A group with Venison Larder, Ice House, Stables, Pony Stables, The Surgery and Game Larders.

This is the earliest remaining corrugated iron building in Scotland and possibly in Britain and it retains much of its original decorative design and footprint. Prince Albert had seen Bellhouse's designs at the Great Exhibition and ordered one to serve as a temporary ballroom at Balmoral; the warehouses were intended to house emigrants moving to Canada or Australia as a result of the Highland clearances. It was erected in three weeks and first used for the gillies' ball, 1st October 1851. It remained in use until 1856 and in 1882 was resited to its present position near the stables and game larders, when the old offices were demolished. In the autumn of 1853 the ballroom also served as a studio for Carl Haag. Prince Albert's use of the early prefabricated warehouse is thought to have been highly influential in popularizing and disseminating the practice.

There has been some alteration to the building, including the addition of sliding doors to one gable, but the original footprint and much of the original decorative design remains.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17574616

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

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  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Somerset: North and Bristol: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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