Former Wharncliffe Fireclay Works And Adjoning Showroom

The former Wharncliffe Fireclay Works and adjoining showroom, built in 1888 for John Armitage and Son, is a substantial brick structure with elaborate terracotta dressings and slate roofs, featuring two ridge stacks and a single gable brick stack. The building includes numbers 27 and 29 Broomhall Street.

The works section, fronting Broomhall Street, is three storeys high with a four-window range. A slightly recessed central section features a round-arched tympanum with a keystone incorporating relief panels and blind tracery, above a paired plain sash window with shafts. Flanking this are plain sashes with relief-panelled tympana. Above are panels inscribed "Wharncliffe Fireclay Works" flanked by segment-headed sashes and medallions. The ground floor features a segmental arched carriage opening with a polychrome head and keystone, flanked by plain sashes, linked by a moulded impost band.

The showroom block, fronting Division Street, is two storeys high, again with a four-window range. It has four two-light casements with shouldered lights and toplights, set within moulded segmental headed openings with mask keystones, alternating with smaller, shouldered single lights. The rounded corner on the left has an obliterated painted sign. The left return has a segment-headed sash with a toplight and a smaller plain sash. The ground floor exhibits a continuous bracketed fascia cornice to the shopfronts along the main front and return. A corner entrance has a glazed double door and overlight. To the right is a wooden pilastered double shopfront with a central glazed door and overlight, flanked by cross mullioned shop windows. Further to the right is a recessed round-headed doorway with a mask keystone, flanked by a pair of blocked windows, with datestones and an erased inscribed panel above. The left return features a panelled door with an overlight and a cross mullioned shop window, both with pilastered wooden surrounds and bracketed cornices. The interior remains uninspected. The buildings demonstrate a consistent decorative style with similar examples found at Armitage’s home, No.91 Crookes Road.