MTL Medal Fisheries fish processing and smoking factory

This is a late 19th-century fish processing and smoking factory, located in Grimsby's dock area. It has undergone later alterations. The building is primarily brick, with rendered surfaces, and is colourwashed at the front facing Fish Dock Road. The roof is covered with concrete tiles. The main part of the factory is three storeys high, with a two-storey extension to the rear on Surtees Street; a tower rises to four storeys.

The Fish Dock Road elevation has three first-floor openings. The ground floor features a central segmental-arched entrance flanked by single segmental-arched three-light windows with wood mullions and transoms. The upper floors have central board doors flanked by circular cast-iron tie-bar ends and smaller windows; first-floor windows are beneath segmental arches, and second-floor windows are beneath lintels at eaves level, all with 20th-century glazing. All doors and windows have stone sills. A pair of small casements are present on the first floor to the right. A bracketed gutter runs along the roofline. The roof is hipped, with a projecting smoking tower set back to the right. The tower has a brick base and a shallow wooden top section featuring rows of centrally-pivoted wooden ventilator flaps: four to the front and rear, and five to the left and right returns. It is topped with a pyramidal roof and a tall central cowl with a wind-vane.

The Surtees Street elevation has three irregularly-spaced first-floor openings. The two-storey section to the rear has a wide board door with strap hinges to the right of centre, a single window to the right, and two to the left. The first floor includes a segmental-headed board door above the ground-floor entrance, a single segmental-headed window with a moulded brick sill, and a single 20th-century window. The third storey behind the main range retains a pair of original square windows, one of which has some remaining glazing bars. 20th-century glazing is found throughout the building.

The interior remains uninspected.

This factory is part of a group of important, smaller fish processing and smoking factories in Grimsby, dating from a period when the town was a leading fishing centre. It is the only example with a square-section smoking tower topped with a single cowl, a design believed to be unique. It is notable as part of a cluster of smoking houses of various dates and designs bounded by Surtees Street, Brown Street, and Sidebottom Street. The factory is still in operation.