Adams Building And Attached Railings

Lace finishers' warehouses, now workrooms and shops, with attached railings, located on Stoney Street (Nos. 12 and 14), incorporating additional ranges fronting St Mary's Gate (Nos. 1, 3, 11, 15 and 17) and Warser Gate (No. 28).

The central block was designed in 1855 by T.C. Hine of Nottingham for Adams, Page & Co., and incorporates an earlier building dating from around 1800. Rear additions fronting St Mary's Gate were constructed around 1862 and 1865, probably also by Hine. A further addition to the north, fronting Warser Gate, dates from around 1880. These later additions are sympathetically styled in keeping with the central block and with each other.

The building is constructed in red brick with ashlar and dressed stone facings to the front. Slate roofs cover the structure. The composition is irregular in plan with rear ranges set about two internal courtyards, rising to 3 and 5 storeys plus basement and attics.

The central block presents an Italianate style facade of 3 storeys plus basement and attics in an E-plan arrangement. A rusticated basement supports an ashlar ground floor with ashlar dressings and quoins. Cornices mark each floor, topped by a coped parapet with finials. The projecting centrepiece features stone steps and balustrades leading to a ground floor entrance with a round-arched doorway flanked by pilasters. Above this stands a rounded bay window rising 2 storeys with 3 lights, surmounted by a balustrade and flanked by round-arched cross-mullioned windows on each floor. The attics contain a large round-arched window flanked by single cross casements, and a shaped gable above with a balustrade, triple window and clock. Curving wings extend on each side with regular fenestration: cross casements on the ground floor and round-arched casements with linked hood moulds above. End elevations mirror the centrepiece, each with a square bay window of 3 storeys and 3 lights, flanked by single windows on each floor. At basement level on the right, a former chapel features a central doorway with sidelights flanked by traceried 2-light windows. A full-width wrought-iron railing with ashlar plinth runs across the front. Round stair turrets are positioned at each rear corner.

A central spinal block extends to St Mary's Gate, with a covered walkway carried on cast-iron brackets at first floor level on the south side. The St Mary's Gate front rises 4 storeys with 5 windows. A projecting centre, defined by quoins, contains a segment-arched cart entrance with gates. Three windows occupy each floor above, with single flanking windows on each floor, one of which has been altered to a door.

The addition to the right, dating from around 1865, comprises two 4-storey blocks plus basement and attics in a 6-window range, linked by a recessed entrance bay with a quoined projecting centrepiece. These blocks feature rounded corners and various windows, some traceried, with an elaborate doorway to the far left incorporating sidelights. The right end contains an entrance bay with a round-arched ashlar doorway and tripartite windows on 2 floors above, topped with segmental pediments. At the rear, fronting King's Place, stands a block of houses dating from around 1800, 4 storeys plus basement, built in brick with a painted ground floor and hipped slate roof.

The addition to the left, from around 1862, is a projecting block of 4 storeys plus basement and attics spanning 7 windows, with a rounded corner to the left featuring cross-mullioned windows.

The northern addition, dating from around 1880, forms a corner block of 4 storeys plus basement and attics with 7 by 7 windows. A rounded corner is defined by quoins and displays paired traceried windows. The St Mary's Gate front includes a segment-arched cart entrance to the right. The Warser Gate front features an off-centre entrance with a round-arched double door flanked by granite shafts and decorated with a relief sculpture in the tympanum. Above this stands a Venetian window.

Windows throughout the building are predominantly round-arched or segment-arched cast-iron glazing bar casements. Larger windows feature stone mullions and tracery.

The interior contains a spinal corridor immediately inside the front entrance, featuring a round-arched arcade of 3 bays supported by round columns with wrought-iron screens. Beyond this lies a stone staircase with an elaborate cast-iron balustrade and ramped wooden handrail leading to the former first-floor sale rooms. The rear cart entrance gives onto a loading area with cross beams carried on cast-iron brackets and round-arched openings to brick vaulted bays on each side. The wooden floor structure rests on cast-iron wall brackets, with wooden brackets in the basement, supplemented by intermediate cast-iron columns. Upper floors employ an unusual suspended floor structure. Several original glazed screens and doors survive.

The addition from around 1862 features a similar structural arrangement. The around 1865 addition contains an internal porter's lodge and time office, with a double arch supported by a central column giving access to a stone winder stair. Riveted wrought-iron main beams operate without brackets. The around 1880 addition houses a stone dogleg stair with cast-iron balustrate, steel cross beams and central cast-iron columns. Wooden truss roofs of various types cover the different sections.

The building holds considerable historical and architectural importance not merely for its architectural merit but because it was regarded when new as an exemplary undertaking, providing an unusual number of welfare facilities. With its various additions, it reflects the development of the lace industry during its most successful period, and its structural features document the evolution of techniques in industrial building construction.