Chatterley Whitfield: former office and laboratory complex (12-14)

Chatterley Whitfield: former office and laboratory complex

This group of buildings consists of former colliery offices and a laboratory, now converted to offices. The complex was constructed in 1934, extended in the late 1930s, with a further addition erected before 1951. Late twentieth-century alterations and early twenty-first century refurbishment have been carried out.

The buildings are constructed from load-bearing red brick laid in stretcher bond, with felt-covered flat roofs and brick parapets. Steel-framed skylights with hips and two brick stacks feature on the rooflines. The metal-framed casement windows are early twenty-first century copies of the originals and are fitted with continuous rendered lintel bands.

The complex has an irregular plan consisting of an L-shaped main office block, a rectangular block to the east which formerly housed the wages office and connects at the south-west corner, and a rectangular laboratory block added to the north-east in 1935. A single-storey addition has been built in the gap between the office and wages blocks, and an early twenty-first century open-sided canopy with a glazed hipped roof has been added to the west side of the laboratory.

The principal elevation of the two-storey main office block faces west and comprises eight bays. The entrance is slightly off-centre, set within a taller flat-roofed entrance tower. The doorway has a painted moulded surround with double doors and a plaque above reading 'CHATTERLEY WHITFIELD COLLIERIES LTD REGISTERED OFFICE'. Above the doors is a tall transomed window. To the left is a four-bay section with multi-pane metal window frames to both floors, featuring concrete sills and continuous painted lintel bands. This detailing is repeated to the right of the doorway, where the end three bays are advanced with curved ends; the curve to the right extends onto the five-bay south elevation, which like the west front has alternate rectangular and square window openings. The adjoining single-storey wages office block is three bays wide with a glazed metal-framed door in the left bay and two metal-framed windows beyond. Built on higher ground to the north-east is the former laboratory. Its south elevation has a central entrance with three metal-framed windows to the left and two matching but wider windows to the right. The east elevation is similarly arranged with a central entrance flanked by three windows, whilst the return has a pair of doors and a single window. The west elevation has a basement level with no openings and four windows to the floor above. The north elevation has openings in matching materials to the rest of the building. A single-storey projection at the north-east corner of the north elevation of the main office block has narrow windows and an entrance door. The north elevation of the main block has a central doorway with windows to either side on both ground and first floors, and above the doorway is a tall transomed window. The three-bay north elevation of the laboratory has a central doorway and a tall stair window above.

The ground floor of the main office block and laboratory each has a central spine corridor with rooms to either side, a layout replicated on the first floor of the office block. The primary and secondary stairs retain their original detailing, and the safe has also been preserved. The former wages block is mostly open-plan and retains original green-glazed tiles on one corridor wall. The interiors throughout have undergone modernisation with some minor reconfiguration of room arrangements.