Former Baker'S Shoe Factory

The Former Baker's Shoe Factory is a shoe factory built in 1868, with an extension added to the rear around 1900. It is constructed of brick with stone dressings, featuring a hipped slate roof and brick stacks. The building has a courtyard plan and stands three stories tall, with an eight-bay range where the first two and last three bays project forward. Notable architectural details include blue brick banding, a second-floor sill course, and a top cornice.

The first two bays have large arched recesses with rubbed brick Venetian arches and hood moulds, a design that continues to the next three bays on the first floor. The first three ground-floor windows are large, with one serving as an entrance flanked by plate glass windows. To the right of the entrance, there are two single-chamfered mullioned and transomed windows with three lights, featuring a segmental-pointed head and shafts, and an oriel above.

On the first floor, the windows are segmental-headed, with the first two having small-paned iron glazing and the rest fitted with horned sashes. The seventh bay features a canted stone oriel with a 1:2:1 light configuration. The second floor has paired windows with small-paned iron glazing, while the end three windows have horned sashes. The fourth bay includes a segmental-pointed cart entrance with a double-chamfered arch and a hood above a panel. A dated foundation stone is located to the right of this entrance.

The right return has a lateral stack, and the left return facing Vicarage Road has three bays that continue the facade treatment, followed by an additional ten bays with a more utilitarian design, featuring small-paned iron glazing and blocked basement openings. The 1900 extension consists of nine bays with shaped gables facing Vicarage Road and five bays towards Powlett Street, which includes a shaped gable and a central tripartite ashlar-faced entrance bay with a clock tower. The courtyard features segmental-headed windows with small-paned iron glazing and a cylindrical stack on a square base, now truncated at eaves level. This building is a fine example of a courtyard-plan factory and represents an early instance of a factory in the shoe industry.