Former Waterworks Offices

FORMER WATERWORKS OFFICES

Grimsby Waterworks offices, now in use as accountants' offices. Built in 1896 by architects Hewins and Colson, with builders Hewins and Goodhand. The building is constructed of yellow brick in stretcher bond with sandstone dressings and has a Welsh slate roof. It is rectangular on plan.

The exterior is two storeys high, arranged across 10 bays in groups of 3, 1, 3, and 3. A three-bay section to the right breaks forward from the main line. The building has a moulded ashlar plinth and ground-floor sill string course. Entrances occur in the recessed 4th bay and the 8th bay.

The main entrance in the 4th bay features marble Ionic demi-columns rising from the sill string course and carrying a round arch with relief inscription reading "WATERWORKS OFFICES". Above the arch is a keystone bearing a relief profile of a woman's head, with a date plaque and weathered carved stone panel rising to the first-floor sill band above. The entrance itself has a recessed double door beneath a plain overlight.

The three-bay section to the left displays panelled bays with arcading of fluted pilasters with carved capitals. The first and third bays contain round-headed windows beneath brick arches with ashlar keystones, hoodmoulds, impost bands, and raised panels above. The second bay has a square-headed window beneath an ashlar plaque with carved surround rising to a first-floor frieze.

The three-bay section to the right of this door has a sill band and a central two-light ashlar ground-floor bow window with fluted pilasters, flanked by two square-headed windows with hoodmoulds, impost band and raised panels above.

The forward-breaking three-bay section to the right has an entrance with marble demi-columns with foliate capitals and a segmental arch. Above this is a shaped stone panel bearing a relief of a scallop with an effaced plaque below. An internal porch contains a panelled door and segmental overlight, with a pair of segmental-headed windows in ashlar surround with sill and raised apron panels nearby.

The first floor displays a continuous ashlar entablature at sill level with fluted brackets and dentilled cornice. The left three-bay section has a central round-headed window in brick pilastered surround beneath a keyed arch and ashlar pediment with carved tympanum, flanked by elliptical-arched windows in shaped raised brick surrounds with moulded ashlar imposts and shaped heads with carved spandrels. Bay 6 contains a round-headed window in pilastered surround with segmental keyed arch breaking the roofline, topped with a wrought-iron finial. The flanking bays have square-headed windows beneath lintels with dripmoulds. The far-right three-bay section has a central pedimented window similar to the second bay, flanked by segmental-arched windows beneath lintels. All windows are plate-glass in moulded wooden frames with single transoms.

The building features a dentilled brick and carved stone cornice beneath a hipped roof with finials. Ridge and roof stacks with ashlar caps are present, along with ornate twisted downpipes. The three-bay left return to New Street displays similar details to the adjoining three front bays.

The interior retains some original details including moulded cornices and panelled doors in architraves, with one featuring a swan-necked pedimented overdoor. A ground-floor centre-right room preserves a panelled plasterwork ceiling, wooden panelled dado, and chimneypiece.

This is an unusual and well-detailed exterior, prominently situated close to many listed buildings in Town Hall Square.