Commercial Block at the Rolls-Royce Main Works Site

This building served as the motor car factory offices for Rolls-Royce, built in 1912 by R. Weston and Son, with significant alterations carried out in 1938 by Arthur Eaton and Son.

Construction and Materials

The building has a steel-framed structure behind red brick, terracotta and Portland stone, with a slated north-light roof.

Exterior

The main facade stretches 38 window bays in length and rises two storeys, topped with a terracotta parapet that twice bears the company name ROLLS-ROYCE LIMITED. The windows are mullioned with terracotta dressings and metal window frames.

In 1938, the central nine bays were remodelled and raised to create a five-bay entrance frontage of three storeys, flanked by two-bay, two-storey ranges on either side. This entrance range was designed in a streamlined classical style and faced in ashlar Portland stone. It features a slightly recessed entrance doorway with a guilloche moulded surround beneath a shallow balcony. The three central bays are divided by broad pilasters, and these, along with the wider buttress-like stepped outer bays, support a parapet with a reeded frieze and a central panel bearing the Rolls-Royce double R motif. The flanking bays have channelled V-jointing to the ground floor facings, stone quoins and stone surrounds to upper floor windows set within brick walling.

At the north end stands a porte-cochere: a single-storeyed structure with three semi-circular arched openings to each side, forming a short colonnaded covered way leading to a now blocked doorway close to the original entrance stairway. It has a hipped end to the roof and a plain tile roof covering.

Interior

During the late 20th century, the interior was refurbished and remodelled. The board room with an ante room survive in their 1930s form, with plain wood panelling, but the fixtures and fittings of most other areas were replaced, and false ceilings were inserted. The 1912 staircase survives at the north end.

The entrance hall, referred to as 'the Marble Hall', has Tuscan columns and is paved with Hopton Wood polished limestone. There is a ramped double staircase with metal open balusters, and at half landing level is a tall, semi-circular-arched window which housed a stained glass window by Hugh Easton from 1949 commemorating the Battle of Britain (now removed to safe store and replaced by an image of the original). The entrance hall has small vestibules to the sides of the entrance, and shallow curved recesses on the side walls for sculpture (now removed to safe store).

Historical Development

The Rolls-Royce Company acquired the Nightingale Road site in Derby in March 1907 with a view to developing an automobile factory, and building work started that year. The first assembly buildings, beginning with what is referred to as No.1 Shop in the original documentation, were constructed of prefabricated steel-frames supplied by Handysides of Derby, and were developed to specifications provided by Henry Royce, designed to allow rapid expansion of the factory to a modular format. As the factory expanded, the factory offices were initially housed in part of No.1 Shop, but in 1912 a purpose-built range of offices was developed on an area of land between the factory and the Nightingale Road frontage.

The building, designed by R. Weston and Son, was completed in November 1912, having been built in two stages. The main entrance was sited at the northern end of the plainly-detailed two-storeyed building, and remained as such until 1938 when a new entrance hall designed by architects Arthur Eaton and Son was developed in the remodelled central portion of the 1912 office range. At the same time, a colonnaded porte-cochere and an enclosed entrance was added to the Nightingale Road frontage at its northern end, and is believed to have been intended to allow for the collection of completed vehicles from the site. In the 1930s, the building was widened along its entire length at the rear, leaving a narrow access way between the frontage buildings and the factory workshops to the rear.

In its fully developed form, the factory occupied a massive footprint and has been surrounded by housing development on all sides, with entrances into the site developed from these surrounding streets. To the south of Nightingale Road, schools and other community facilities were developed to serve the expanding industrial suburb developing around the works. The changes in the pattern of manufacture and the relocation of the main business site to Osmaston have driven the current regeneration proposals for the now mostly vacated Nightingale Road site.

Industrial Significance

The Rolls-Royce factory was designed to produce the Silver Ghost car, but demand in the First World War for aircraft engine manufacture led to the development at the Derby works of the first Rolls-Royce aero engine. The company's first aero engine was the Eagle, based on the Silver Ghost engine, built from early 1915. Around half the aircraft engines used by the Allies in World War I were made by Rolls-Royce. The Eagle engine was fitted to nearly 50 aircraft types requiring over 4,500 engines to be manufactured in Derby and overseas. In 1919 it powered the Vickers Vimy in which Alcock and Brown crossed the Atlantic non-stop for the first time.

By the late 1920s, aero engines made up most of Rolls-Royce's business. Henry Royce's last design was the Merlin aero engine, which came out in 1935, although he had died in 1933. This was developed in Derby from the R engine, which had powered a record-breaking Supermarine S.6B seaplane to almost 400 mph in the 1931 Schneider Trophy. The Merlin was a powerful V12 engine and was fitted into many World War II aircraft: the British Hawker Hurricane, Supermarine Spitfire, de Havilland Mosquito (two-engine), Avro Lancaster (four-engine), and Vickers Wellington (two-engine). It also transformed the American P-51 Mustang into possibly the best fighter of its time, its Merlin engine built by Packard under licence. Over 160,000 Merlin engines were produced. The Merlin crossed over into military vehicle use as the Meteor, powering the Centurion tank among others.

Car manufacturing was transferred to the Crewe works in 1946 but the Derby site remained closely associated with aero engine development and manufacture until the development of the new Derby facility.