15-17 Fulton Street

Warehouses dating to around 1850, later used for a variety of industrial purposes, including as a corn and provender mill and warehouse, converted into artists' studios and living accommodation in the early 21st century.

The building is constructed of mellow red brick and cast iron with some pressed-brick and sandstone dressings. It lies to the east of Bramley Moore Dock and Wellington Dock, bounded by Fulton Street to the east, neighbouring buildings to the north and west, and a cleared site to the south. The structure comprises two warehouse units grouped together within a single building, each of four storeys plus jigger lofts (mezzanines that originally housed hoist machinery) and a basement. The rectangular plan is internally divided by a solid central brick wall separating the interior into two halves, with stairs at each north and south end, and an additional early 21st-century stair inserted at the centre.

The front elevation facing Fulton Street is notably wide and symmetrical, comprising eight bays. Two gabled units, each of four bays, feature central loading bays. The ground floor is raised. At each end of the front elevation are narrow recessed doorways with segmental-arched heads and original sheet-iron entrance doors set within cast-iron frames, each leading onto an internal stair lit by narrow stair windows and accessed via altered steps. A later inserted doorway to the centre of the elevation is similarly styled with a sheet-iron door, accessed via a steel stair. The original sheet-iron loading doors have mostly been removed, with only the basement-level doors on the south loading bay surviving; the openings are now glazed. However, the cast-iron floor ends survive, along with semi-circular domed cast-iron hoods to the tops of the bays, cast-iron hoists, and some cast-iron tethering rings. The loading bays are flanked by later tie bars and small windows with segmental-arched pressed-brick heads and sandstone sills set to each floor, most retaining their original cast-iron bars, though internal sheet-iron shutters have been removed and the windows are now glazed. Basement windows have been bricked up, and two openings have been altered and widened with replaced lintels. The gables, each featuring a small oculus at the apex, are linked by a brick parapet with sandstone copings. Both units have pitched roofs incorporating small modern velux windows, and the dividing party wall rises above the roofline as a fire break. Downpipes have been replaced in uPVC, though a cast-iron hopper survives.

The side elevations feature a single window to the centre of the upper floors in the same style as those to the front; at least one retains original cast-iron bars, though some are now merely glazed. The south-west and north-west corners are canted.

The rear elevation has similarly detailed window openings, some blocked up, and flues have been inserted through the rear wall.

Internally, the building is subdivided into two halves by a brick spine wall incorporating a doorway on each floor providing access between the two areas; the sheet-iron doors have been removed and replaced with modern timber doors, though their cast-iron frames survive. Heavy softwood-timber floor joists support a mixture of concrete and softwood-timber floors; the latter are in the southern half and incorporate trapdoors. Cast-iron columns provide support in the basement and ground floor, and in the southern half of the first floor, with substantial softwood-timber posts and brick piers elsewhere. Windows have very deep reveals and have lost their sheet-iron shutters.

At each north and south end is a fireproof stair bay comprising an enclosed brick compartment containing a cast-iron spiral stair with sheet-iron doors off onto each floor level; one door off the north stair has been removed and replaced with a timber door. An additional early 21st-century stair has been inserted to the centre front, and further timber stair flights have been inserted between some floors. The basements' sandstone stairs survive.

The formerly open-plan spaces were partitioned on each floor in the early 21st century to create artists' studios. Heating stoves and flues, kitchen areas, and bathrooms have been inserted. Later tie rods pass through the building just below the ceilings, with an original hoist hook attached to one.

Both warehouse units retain their original roof structures, including massive Queen-post trusses and side purlins. At the east end of each warehouse is a mezzanine jigger loft, now with later access stairs, used as sleeping platforms. Machinery has been removed, but pulley lines and beams survive. The base of the jigger loft in the southern half has been extended on one side to the tip of the roof truss.