Former Grape Street railway bonded warehouse

Former Railway Bonded Warehouse, Grape Street

This former railway bonded warehouse was built between 1867 and 1868 for the London and North Western Railway. It is constructed in red brick with blue-engineering-brick detailing including banding and quoins, and is topped with Welsh-slate roof coverings. The building has undergone internal modifications during the 20th and early 21st centuries.

The warehouse is rectangular in plan, orientated east-west, and comprises six floors including lower and upper ground floors. The building rises to five-and-a-half storeys on its north side, reducing to four storeys on the south side where ground level is higher. All windows feature segmental heads with brick voussoirs, blue-brick keystones and reveals, ashlar springers and cills, and are fitted with metal multi-pane casements. Taking-in doors are timber with glazed uppers, and ground-floor entrances are fitted with double battened timber doors. The building is topped by hipped slate roofs and features a dentilled parapet, with a painted sign reading "BONDED WAREHOUSE" visible on the west elevation.

The 12-bay north elevation contains six loading bays arranged in three pairs, with taking-in doors to the first through fourth floors and the remains of brackets for hoists above. The loading bays on the ground floors have small window openings, whilst the remaining bays feature tall, wide arched entrances to the ground floor and arched windows to the upper floors. The six-bay west elevation has two loading bays with taking-in doors and three lower ground-floor doors. The ground level at the southern end is higher, with an additional first-floor door that formerly provided access for an internal railway line. The 12-bay south elevation has three large first-floor doors where railway tracks would have originally entered the warehouse, with the remainder arranged similarly to the north elevation but containing three single loading bays. The east elevation is largely blank, with a regular arrangement of arched recesses and a first-floor door to the higher southern section. Part of the lower east elevation is obscured by an attached former stable block. Behind the parapet sits a twin-hipped roof housing some 20th-century plant.

Internally, all floors are supported by cast-iron cruciform and circular-hollow columns. The lower and upper ground-floor levels are additionally supported by substantial brick piers, some featuring blue-brick quoins and chamfer detailing. Along the southern edge of the lower ground floor are sections of brick arches. The three lower floors employ fireproof construction with wrought-iron girders and brick-jack arch ceilings. The upper three levels have timber floors. Most ceilings are now covered with modern ceiling tiles. The lower four floors have been subdivided by 20th and 21st-century plasterboard and concrete-block partitions to create office and studio spaces, with several inserted stairs and lift shafts, particularly on the north side. The upper two floors remain as large open spaces. The top floor is open to the roof and is topped by a twin queen-post roof structure, within which the remains of the original hoist machinery survive.