Maldon Ironworks And Railings On South Corner

This is an ironworks, dating to the mid-19th century, now converted into a snooker club and due to become shops. It is constructed of yellow Gault brick with red brick dressings, and has double-gabled sheet-metal roofs. The building is three storeys high. The front elevation features two low-pitched gables with red brick courses under the eaves, and a course of angled bricks. There is an attic storey above an entablature, with giant pilasters delineated by courses of red brick. Each gable has a central circular window, outlined with bands of red brick and stone. A broad central pilaster/pier, narrower piers on the flanks, and intermediate narrow piers frame recessed panels. Above the entablature these panels are treated as a semicircular motif, with a pair of windows containing margin glazing bars and a narrow dividing pilaster. The cornice of red bricks includes a course of angled bricks. Stone bands at entablature level are inscribed in Roman lettering: MALDON: IRONWORKS: COMPANY: LIMITED. The recessed panels each have two windows of four panes with a ventilator over on each floor. Between the storeys are panels of red herringbone brick with a central stone boss. A moulded black brick plinth is present with an angled brick course in each recessed bay, and a diamond motif in the entablature over the piers. Recessed square colonnettes are on the four corners above the entablature. The south-west flank has eight small-paned windows with segmental heads at attic level, one of which has been altered, and eight similar, deeper windows on the first floor, one of which has been altered to form a door. The ground floor features four windows, two wide openings now infilled, a tall narrow door opening with a recessed entrance, and one widened opening. A 20th-century iron fire escape descends the flank. The north-east flank has eight similar windows on the attic floor, one now with louvres, and eight windows on the first floor, three of which have been altered to doors leading to two 20th-century iron fire escapes. The ground floor has eight windows, three of which are now doors. The rear elevation has a circular window in each gable. Inside, deep transverse beams are supported by three rows of cast-iron columns, one now partly on stanchions on the ground floor. A short length of cast-iron railing has a square iron pier with a ball finial and a brick plinth with stone coping.