Vickers Building River Don Works

Vickers Building, River Don Works

Steel works offices and workshops with living accommodation for the Vickers family and their staff in the central block. The central office building was designed by A.F. Watson for Vickers, Son & Co. and completed in 1906. Adjoining ranges were added in 1911 for Vickers, Son & Maxim / Vickers Ltd. The building has a steel frame with red brick cladding and ashlar dressings, slate roof, and various chimneys.

The main range to the right stands four storeys plus basement with a 28-window facade. A lower three-storey block to the left contains 19 windows. A two-storey gabled block further to the left has 3 windows. All sections feature an ashlar plinth, moulded eaves cornice, parapet with pilasters and stone coping, and concrete balconies with steel railings to the three upper floors.

The main block facade is near-symmetrical with a 1:6:1:4:3:4:1:7:1 window arrangement, with the single bays and three central bays emphasized and three right-hand bays blind. The ground floor has 6-pane windows with quoined jambs. First and second floors have 6-pane windows with eared brick architraves and sillbands. Third floor windows have lintel bands. The basement features segment-headed barred windows with stepped keystones. The end bays contain 3-light upper windows with stone architraves, those to the first floor being segment-headed. Bays 9 and 21 have segment-headed keyed ground floor windows. Above these rise 2-storey canted stone oriels. On the third floor, corniced 3-light segment-headed windows are flanked by pilasters carrying open pediments containing cartouches.

The three-bay centre features a polished stone ground floor with a recessed round-arched doorway with fanlight flanked by Tuscan columns carrying a cornice, with single side lights beyond. Above stands a 2-storey canted stone oriel flanked by windows with eared architraves separated by rock-faced and rusticated pilasters. On the third floor, windows with stone architraves are set within a tetrastyle in antis colonnade with dentilled pediment containing an oculus. Above again rises a square ashlar turret with round arches and angle pilasters, topped with a lead cupola. To the right, a ridge louvre features a pyramidal lead cap and finial.

The range to the left is brick with stone dressings, with plinth, pilasters, cogged eaves band, and coped parapet. Cast steel lintels to the lower floors have keystones embossed "VSM" (Vickers, Son & Maxim) on the right and "V" (Vickers) on the left, reflecting a change in the company's title during construction. Lower floors have steel multi-pane windows except for the first floor right bay, which has two 6-pane sashes. The second floor has paired margin light sashes in each bay, the pair to the right blocked.

The interior contains reinforced concrete floors and innovative heating and air conditioning systems including tile-lined air ducts and "vacuum steam" heating, and a ducted vacuum cleaning system with outlets throughout the building. Walls are largely clad in polished marble and terrazzo. The boardroom has green and grey marble walls and fireplace with mahogany woodwork. A marble-lined first floor corridor features arches at intervals with a terrazzo floor and bronze-finished 3-light chandeliers. The second floor landing has a marble-clad triple arcade with terrazzo stair and landing, and marble-clad balustrade and capping. The lift enclosure is largely concealed, but an Art Nouveau style metal screen is visible on the first floor landing. Office interiors have moveable partition walls.

This building is important for its architectural quality, innovative use of materials, and historical association with the Vickers firm and the British armaments industry during the two World Wars. A.F. Watson (circa 1857–1932) was an assistant to Charles Hadfield of Sheffield and later entered partnership with Edward Holmes, with whom he designed numerous board schools. He subsequently designed various company offices and banks.