Former Foundry Building For Fenton Murray And Wood Engineers

This is a former foundry building, dating to around 1795, with modifications made in the mid-19th century. It was originally constructed for Fenton, Murray and Wood, engineers, as part of Matthew Murray’s Foundry Street works, and includes the adjacent building at No. 103 Water Lane. The building is constructed of brown brick in an irregular 1:5 English bond, topped with a hipped roof covered in corrugated asbestos and featuring a tall two-flue stack on the ridge. It is a tall, single-storey structure of five bays, with a lower lean-to addition at the north end.

The facade facing Foundry Street features tall, segmental brick windows with header arches and multipane glass, flanking a central full-height round entrance, now with glazing and garage doors. Three tiers of round tie-bar plates are visible on the exterior. The rear facade, overlooking the yard, has three windows similar to those on Foundry Street, with the right-hand window obscured by the lean-to. A central round-arched entrance is flanked by slightly lower, blocked archways, the central arch supported by stone Tuscan columns with imposts. The left return, facing Water Street, has a tall window mirroring the Foundry Street facade, and an added lean-to extension.

Inside, five brick buttresses against the long walls are fitted with cast-iron shoes, likely supporting an early travelling crane, a feature added in the 1840s and considered a very early example of its kind. The roof has been replaced. It is likely Matthew Murray's first building on this site and part of the world's first integrated engineering works. Records indicate the building contained two air furnaces and three stoves, the dimensions of which are specified in a letter from James Watt junior. A steam engine and boiler were in use outside the south end of the building in 1816 for powering the furnaces.

This foundry building is a rare survival of an early purpose-built workshop, designed to provide good ventilation and weather protection. The stone columns at the triple-arched entrance were intended to be viewed from the now-blocked Water Lane frontage, reflecting a deliberate architectural aesthetic and a visual connection to the design of the White Cloth Hall on Crown Street.