Insignia Works

Insignia Works, Rutland Road, Sheffield

Spring manufactory, now warehouse and offices. Built 1919–1920, designed by William John Hale, architect, of Sheffield. Red brick in English garden wall bond with modern corrugated steel cladding to two subsidiary elevations and to the roof, largely concealed behind parapets.

The building forms a tall, single-storey rectangular block with four parallel gables of varying widths running across the building at right angles to the River Don on its north-east side.

The Rutland Road elevation is four bays wide, with the left-hand bay narrower. The bays are divided by narrow recessed brickwork panels, with a slight lowering of the parapet and rectangular relief plaques painted blue with white lettering. The outer two plaques read "SAMUEL OSBORN & Co LTD" and the inner two read "STEEL MAKERS" with the company trademarks of a hand and a heart beneath. Two small datestones inscribed 1919 and 1920 are set in the parapet. Stone-capped plinth and stone parapet blocks flank the recessed panels and appear at the outer corners. A vehicular entrance in the second bay from the left features a modern roller door, which replaces original part-glazed timber doors, positioned below a large segmental-headed multi-paned window. Similar but deeper windows occupy the third and fourth bays, with recessed brick panels below. The left-hand bay has a smaller window above a recessed brick panel and three small single-light windows.

The River Don elevation features four gables, alternating between larger and smaller. Each carries a large or very large tripartite segmental-headed multi-paned window with narrow transom panels reading "SAMUEL/OSBORN/& Co LTD" and "STEEL MAKERS". The left-hand gable has tall single-light windows flanking the tripartite window, with panels displaying the company trademarks above. The two larger gables, first and third from the left, each have a circular window at the apex, while the two smaller gables have panels with the hand and heart trademarks. Circular apertures in the parapet between the gables drain roof valleys into downpipes.

The side elevation to Rutland Way has four gables, with the three to the left now clad in corrugated steel sheeting. The upper part of the right-hand gable is slate-hung with corrugated steel to the rear. Below are four round-headed window openings, now blocked, with stone sills, impost blocks and keystones. A modern doorway has been inserted. The north-west elevation is clad in corrugated steel sheeting.

The interior comprises a large open working space with rectangular riveted columns supporting rolled steel joists running across the building. Metal strut trusses supporting metal purlins are bolted onto these joists. Towards the Rutland Road end, a two-tier modern prefabricated office accommodation has been inserted into the space.

The building was constructed 1919–1920 as the spring shop for steel manufacturer Samuel Osborn & Co's Rutland Works, which produced railway springs. It represents the only known industrial building designed by Sheffield architect William John Hale (1862–1929), who is better known for designing Nonconformist chapels, schools and private residences. The Osborn family were fellow Wesleyans in Sheffield. The building was refurbished in the 1990s and renamed Insignia Works after the company trademarks incorporated into the principal elevations. It has group value with the adjacent Rutland Road Bridge over the River Don, from which the best view of its principal elevations can be seen.