24 & 24A, IRON GATE

Workshop with road frontage building, now offices and stores, located at 24 & 24A Iron Gate in Derby.

The building dates to the late 18th century with 19th and late 20th century alterations. It was built as premises for the clock-making business founded by John Whitehurst. The structure is constructed of red and brown brick laid generally to stretcher bond with irregular headers; later brickwork employs light brown brick. The roofs are pitched and covered with slate.

The plan comprises a narrow frontage range to Iron Gate with a workshop range extending westwards along the narrow plot. A straight joint between bays 1 and 2 at the far left indicates the link to the rear of the shop premises, which was rebuilt in the 19th century. The north side faces a former yard area adjacent to neighbouring properties, while the south side is parallel to an alleyway.

The north exterior elevation presents a tall, narrow range of three storeys and six bays. The ground floor features a lean-to addition; the original exterior wall is plastered with access retained to stairs. The first and second floors have a row of eight cast-iron window frames set flush with the external wall face, arranged in pairs and separated by timber mullions. Each frame comprises 6x7 panes with a central top-hinged panel of 3x3 panes. To the far right on each floor is a narrower window of 6x5 lights, also with a hinged panel, deep stone wedge lintels and sills.

The south elevation facing the alley shows upper coursework of brick that has been renewed; the ground floor has two 20th-century small-pane frames with concrete lintels and no fenestration above. A wide chimney sits at eaves at the midpoint of the elevation. The walling continues as late 19th and 20th-century brickwork with three square windows to two storeys. The west gable has an inserted 20th-century window to ground floor and a late 20th-century brick gate pier; rebuilt brickwork throughout suggests extensive remodelling.

The interior workshop is now used for storage with access from the gabled linking building. A plain open timber square newel stair at the east end links the floors. The upper floor features queen-post roof trusses, a 20th-century partition wall, and a projecting brick chimney stack against the south wall, the fireplace now hidden by shelving. The western end bay is divided from the main workshop by a brick cross wall with a plank door on strap hinges; the inner window has rounded jambs. The cast-iron window frames retain much original glass; the third window from the east end bears a pane inscribed 'W J Derby' in italic script.

A two-storey linking block connects to the front range. It contains a late 17th-century staircase of two flights with heavy turned balusters and acorn finials to the lower flight and splat balusters to the upper flight.

The street frontage range is of two bays and four storeys with early 19th-century brickwork laid to decorative header bond with rubbed brick arches to the second-floor windows. The ground floor has a recessed late 20th-century shop front with plate glass and a deep fascia board. The first floor displays windows with timber surrounds and a name panel of 1912 inserted by A.E. Moult, gentleman's outfitter. The second-floor walling and fenestration appear to date to the late 18th or early 19th century. The third storey features paired glazed gables in Vernacular Revival style with timber finials. Additions and alterations to the top storey, upper part of the north wall and rear gables were carried out in 1864 by Richard Keene, a photographer.

Historical Context

The tenement formed part of the post-medieval property of the Meynell family; part of whose 17th-century town house survives as no. 22 Iron Gate. The workshop was probably built for John Whitehurst's craftsmen, with the business managed by his brothers George and later William following John's death in 1788. John Whitehurst, the founder's nephew, continued the clock-making business. There is a reference to John Davies, scientific instrument maker, working here in 1826. The 1791 Plan of Derby shows further ranges, probably stabling or workshops, extending along the tenement behind nos. 22 and 24. The character of the frontage brickwork and rear range suggests the workshop was built behind the 17th-century house with security a consideration, as the public side was left without fenestration. The frontage was rebuilt as a separate three-storey house after Iron Gate was widened in the early 19th century and continued as a single property incorporating the rear range.

In 1836 the premises were occupied by William Beeland and his family, woollen drapers, tailors, silk mercers, linen drapers and haberdashers, with milliners and dress rooms. William Gillam, boot-maker and cordwainer, worked at no. 24 between 1842 and 1851. The upper floors and rear range were taken by Richard Keene, a photographer and bookseller with a printing business run from the workshop by the 1860s. Later occupiers included architects and a solicitor (1874), a draper and horse breaker (1888). The National Provincial Bank occupied the building frontage in 1915 and 1922; by 1925 A.E. Moult, drapers, were using the building.