Former Ice Factory And Cold Store

997/1/10433 09-JAN-06

DIGBETH 123-135 Former ice factory and cold store

II

Ice Factory and Cold Store. Designed in 1899 by Ernest Bewlay for the Linde British Refrigeration Company and completed in 1900, by which time Bewlay had joined Cossins and Peacock of Colmore Row. Red brick with a slate roof. Four storeys and a basement. Exterior: The front to Digbeth Road has a distinct architectural treatment. There are 10 bays: At ground floor level these have semi-circular relieving arches and the 7 bays at left are blind but at right the 3 metal-framed windows have cambered heads. The first floor is blind, but the second and third floor windows are paired and the third floor has lunettes, save to the 2 right-hand bays which are blind. The left flank abuts No. 135 Digbeth. The right flank has 2 shaped gables with a loading bay to the ground floor which has a raised platform and 4 iron columns with bollards. The second and third floors here have a wall arcade but no windows. To the tops of the gables are large circular air inlets. A wall to ground floor level at right has been demolished and the 1937 Goad Insurance plan of the site indicates that this is probably where the boilerhouse chimney once stood. The rear has the boilerhouse at right with arched heads to the metal-framed windows and pilaster buttresses and a louvre to the roof. Interior: the building has a tall ground floor and lesser height to the three upper floors. The loading bay is at the eastern end of the building, giving onto a courtyard which is entered from Digbeth and Orwell Passage. Immediately behind are a staircase and two lifts leading to each floor. The floors are supported by a grid of evenly spaced iron columns with moulded caps supporting steel beams. At each level there are 4 main chambers. These have heavy, insulated doors and the walls and ceiling are lined with wood panelling behind which is cork insulation. There are metal ducts of rectangular section across the ceilings, which are also covered with cork insulation and boxed-in with wood panels. To the top of the building there are replaced fans which circulate cold air. The roof structure has been replaced to the original pattern. Opposite the loading bay, on the other side of a courtyard, is a lower building with shaped gables housing the office, stores and canteen, built in 1920 to designs by Cossins, Peacock and Cooke, which is not included in this item.