Worcester Engine Works

Worcester Engine Works

Large engineering works, now housing separate industrial units, located on the north side of Shrub Hill Road. Built in 1864 and designed by Thomas Dickson for the Worcester Engine Works Company Limited, with later additions and alterations.

The building is constructed of red brick with dressings of stone and blue and yellow bricks in an Italianate style with polychromatic decoration. The structure comprises a series of large full-height workshops with ancillary and office accommodation arranged over two storeys. Multiple north-light roofs of slate and corrugated sheet with patent glazing are supported on trusses and columns of wrought iron and cast iron. All windows are iron-framed.

The principal elevation extends for approximately 125 metres along Shrub Hill Road from its junction with Tolladine Road, mostly of two-storey height. It features a central pedimented bay with slightly set back flanking wings, the end bays of which break forward to align with the centre bay. Further wings of diminished height stand to left and right. The left wing, which turns the road junction, is surmounted by a pedimented clock tower. The elevation contains 37 first-floor windows arranged as follows: 1:2:1:2:8:1:3:1:8:2:8.

Stone detailing includes sills and continuous sill bands, a moulded string course below the frieze, cornice and parapet coping. Brick detailing comprises quoins, pilasters, bands between ground and first-floor windows, window and door surrounds, recessed panels below sills and above window heads, and a decorative frieze with modillions. Window openings have either segmental or semi-circular arched heads. The central bay contains a tall triple-light first-floor window flanked on each side by a smaller single window with an oculus above. Most windows are multi-pane in metal frames with small horizontally pivoted opening sections; some ground-floor windows have later brick-blocking. Windows to the clock tower block are 2/2 sashes on the first floor and 4/4 on the ground floor. Windows to the far-right wing are 2/2 and 2/1 sashes, all with arched heads in plain reveals. Two main entrances in the centre bay have paired replacement six-panel doors. A door to the right wing is a half-glazed replacement. Two doors to the left of centre are later insertions into former window openings. The return and rear elevations are in similar but simplified style.

The interior retains structural ironwork including cast and wrought iron lattice girders and diagonal boarding to the underside of the roof covering.

The Worcester Engine Works Company was established in 1864 by a group of railway entrepreneurs to manufacture locomotives and rolling stock. The premises were linked by rail to the main line, with further connections via a subway (still existing) to premises on the south side of Shrub Hill Road, as shown on the 1886 Ordnance Survey Map. The company later became the West Central Wagon Works, specialising in the manufacture of railway carriages and wagons. The adoption of Swindon by the Great Western Railway for manufacture and repair led to the closure of the Shrub Hill works by 1871. The building was used as a venue for the Worcestershire Exhibition of 1882, inspired by The Great Exhibition of 1852. From 1903 to 1984, Heenan and Froude, a Manchester-based engineering company responsible for the manufacture of Blackpool Tower, occupied the premises. The G.W.R. carriage and wagon workshops to the north-east of the site were demolished in 1968, making the Shrub Hill buildings an important remnant of the railway era in Worcester.