The Former Bryant And May Match Factory

The Former Bryant and May Match Factory

Factory built 1919-21, extended 1948, with subsequent minor alterations. Designed by the architects Mewes and Davis, and structural engineer Bylander, for Maguire, Paterson and Palmer Ltd.

The building employs a bold linear arrangement with a principal flat-roofed manufacturing range aligned east-west, and a narrow flat-roofed service wing extending southwards at the west end. The main range uses reinforced concrete flat slab construction with brick wall panels incorporating multi-paned metal windows. The service wing extension is in unrendered brickwork.

The north elevation is 2 storeys and 35 bays. Full-height painted concrete columns with plainly-moulded capitals bearing red rose symbols delineate the bays, rising to a plain eaves band which formerly supported a parapet. A central entrance bay sits within a later link connecting to an adjacent building to the north. Within the bays are recessed multi-paned metal window frames with concrete cills and pivot lights, set upon a plain brick plinth. A wide storey band incorporates decorative coloured tile panels within the bays. Wide end bays contain double doors to stair lobbies within chamfered concrete surrounds with integral drip moulds. A circular concrete water tower sits above the centre of the range.

The west elevation comprises 16 bays: the main manufacturing range of 3 bays width is extended by a further 13 bays forming a single-bay-width service range. A 3-bay opening at ground floor level, now partially infilled, is supported by a deep concrete beam.

Interior manufacturing floors incorporate 2 arcades of circular columns with mushroom-shaped heads, characteristic of flat slab construction, and integral square bearing pads supporting shuttered concrete floor panels. Side, end and corner wall columns have integral jowels to support bearing pads. The water tower columns are of larger section. Centre and end staircases are of concrete. The majority of rear wall brick panels were removed when extensions were added to infill the rear service yard; these later extensions are not of special interest.

This factory represents one of the earliest British applications of flat slab reinforced concrete construction. The technique was first theorised by H T Eddy in 1890 in a paper at the University of Michigan, with patents subsequently taken out in the United States by C A Turner, who built early flat slab buildings in Chicago where the pioneering 'Chicago rules' for such work were developed. The engineer Bylander, who had met Eddy, introduced the technique to Britain but encountered difficulty with London Building Regulations. The Garston factory is among the earliest British applications of this pioneer technique, which contributed significantly to the development of reinforced concrete constructional systems throughout Europe and the United States.