Soho Engine Shed, originally Kilburns' warehouse

Warehouse converted into a locomotive shed. Built in 1826 for Messrs Kilburns iron merchants, leased in 1842 to Timothy Hackworth’s Soho Works, converted to a locomotive shed after the 1855 purchase by the Stockton & Darlington Railway.

MATERIALS: roughly coursed sandstone rubble with dressed quoins, Welsh slate roof.

PLAN: an undivided shed for two standard-gauge lines entering via the north-west gable, a chimney and a single-celled lean-to attached to the south-east gable.

EXTERIOR: the main building is a tall, nine-bay shed, the end bays being blind, the other seven bays have regular, high-set, lintelled windows with external shutters. Gables are coped, supported by shaped kneelers. The north-west gable has a large opening formed with a timber lintel supported by a central post, each side of which there is a pair of double doors wide enough to accommodate a locomotive. Above there is a square ventilator and a lamp hung on a cast iron bracket. Attached centrally to the south-east gable is a tall, stone-built, square-sectioned chimney which has a short upper section that tapers from an overhanging course. Projecting from the gable on the north side of the chimney is the paint store, a small extension with a lean-to roof. This has a pedestrian door in the south-west wall, but no other openings.

INTERIOR: the shed retains two standard-gauge railway lines, both with shallow inspection pits, running the length of the building. Central to the south-east end there is a large hearth served by the chimney. To the north-east is the substantial iron door to the paint store, this store having a fire-proofed roof of stone flags supported on iron joists.