58, Oxford Street

This factory was built in 1912 by Buckland & Farmer of Birmingham for Thomas Walker & Son, who manufactured marine instruments. Later additions and alterations occurred in the mid and late 20th century. The building is constructed of red brick with polychrome brick dressings and features framed construction with rolled steel joists on concrete columns, concrete floors, and asphalted flat roofs. Workshop ranges have slated north light roofs. It comprises an office range, three stories and nine bays wide, and a workshop range, two stories and twelve bays wide, forming an L-shaped layout. Most of the original steel-framed windows with glazing bars remain, with the ground floor windows being round-headed.

The office range features windows on the upper floors set in round arched recesses divided by pilasters, with diaperwork panels above each first-floor window. The Oxford Street facade has a round arched moulded brick doorway with sidelights (one blocked) under a shouldered lead hood with ropework and bosses, accessed via panelled double doors with a traceried fanlight. To the left of the entrance are four windows, followed by two windows, then a smaller round-arched door with a glazing bar fanlight. The upper floors have a regular fenestration pattern.

A screen wall with pilasters and dentillated coping incorporates a round arched opening with panelled double doors and a traceried wrought iron grille. Flanking this are doorways, one of which is now blank, with a round arch and a herringbone tympanum. The canted corner has a blank ground floor with a 1911 datestone and single windows above. Segment-headed ground floor flanking windows add to the architectural detail. A late 20th-century weatherboard structure on the roof houses a test tank. The Coventry Street frontage includes a single bay containing the staircase and regular fenestration on each floor, with two windows renewed on the second floor.

The workshop range along Coventry Street maintains similar ground floor window configurations, with a pair of doors in the sixth bay. The upper floor is blank and divided by pilasters, with a loading door in the fourth bay. Five bays of north light roofs define the workshop elevation. A loading bay with a glazed hipped roof is situated in the return angle. The rear elevation has a mid-20th-century addition, two stories and four windows wide, with a flat roof. A square chimney stack with recessed panels is located in the return angle.

The interior of the office range includes an entrance lobby with half-glazed double doors and traceried fanlights, a main office with framed panelling and plaster cornices, and simpler minor offices. Partitioning is likely from the mid-20th century. Workshops and canteen fittings are present. A concrete dogleg staircase with a steel stick balustrade, moulded wooden handrail and glazed brick dado ascends from the entrance lobby. The workshop range exhibits exposed framing and glazed partitioning, complemented by two light wells. The rooftop building contains a polygonal test tank with a rotating arm and associated test equipment.