British Gas Research Station Including Attached Restaurant Block To South

A gas research station, designed in 1965 and built between 1966 and 1967 by Ryder and Yates. An extension, completed in 1975-76 and originally containing a restaurant, lecture theatre, classrooms, and workshops, was attached to the south and also designed by Ryder and Yates. The main block is constructed of painted concrete precast panels, with site-cast concrete roof features and a portal. The 1975-6 pavilion is clad in black precast concrete panels incorporating an aggregate of broken Guinness bottles.

The main block is three storeys high and has a rectangular plan. The front section contains an entrance and car parking on the two lower floors, originally housing a library, administration offices, and a canteen. Behind this is a flexible section arranged in two parallel zones, originally comprising flexible laboratory space on two floors, alongside a full-height workshop. The front elevation to Station Road has three storeys, the upper level articulated by a continuous horizontal strip window that runs along the side elevations. The lower, car-parking floors are open and partly covered by two grassy mounds of differing heights. Circular pilot lights are also present on the car park floors, extending to the side elevations. A projecting entrance bridge is centrally positioned at first-floor (street) level, and a full-height, triangular-section site-cast painted concrete portal is attached to the far side. The roof is flat, with three large, funnel-shaped water tanks and three cylindrical vents grouped symmetrically; two funnels are situated to the south and one to the north.

Attached to the south by a raised, glazed tube is the 1974 restaurant pavilion. This is lower than the main block and has a flat roof. It features a fully-glazed ground storey, a taller blind panelled section, and a higher section with full-height bronzed glass panels. A circular window is present on the south side of the upper panelled section, with light staircases rising from this level to either end. Internally, the main building retains elements of the original flexible partition system, designed on a 3'4" planning grid, in parts of the former laboratory areas on both floors. The building was designed for flexibility and extension, which has been carried out in keeping with the original elevations. The interior of the 1974 pavilion has not been inspected. This is a building notable for its purity of form and architectural subtlety, demonstrated for example in the slight and deliberate deviations from symmetry on the front elevation.