Former Engineer'S Residence To Albion Brewery

Former Brewery Engineer's House

This is a former engineer's residence to Albion Brewery, built around 1905 for Mann, Crossman and Paulin's Albion Brewery, possibly designed by William Bradford and Sons, with Holland and Hannen as builders. A mansard and gable were added around 1984 to designs by John Taylor and Associates, followed by later alterations.

Exterior

The building sits between the Grade I-listed Trinity Almshouses to the east and the Proctor Matthews development of shops and flats to the west and north. Its principal frontage faces Mile End Road and is constructed in yellow stock brick with stone dressings and a copper cupola. The ground floor features a central carriage arch flanked by two blind arches, all with prominent stone voussoirs and keystones. The brickwork is centred with stone to the sides; the right-hand blind arch now contains modern glazing. The central arch is topped with a segmental pediment and two large stone finials with the original iron lantern hanging over large timber double doors with glazed upper portions.

The upper storeys are set back at a different angle to the ground floor, with bays projecting forward from east to west. The westernmost bay forms a corner turret decorated with shell-topped niches, panels of carved stonework, colonettes with spiral carving, and a copper dome with finial. The first floor is richly decorated, entirely clad in stone with mullion and transom windows, barber-shop colonettes, and a prominent curved bay window with copper roof. The second floor is plainer, with decoration limited to baluster colonettes on a single mullioned window. The bulging capitals flanking the main carriage entrance are interesting mannerist touches. The attic storey was largely rebuilt in 1984 but in keeping with Edwardian style, featuring a large central scalloped gable and slate mansard roofs to either side. This post-modernist intervention successfully interprets the tone and detail of the original work. The elevations to the side and rear are plain stock brick with mostly replaced windows.

Interior

The building has been refurbished but retains vestiges of its original plan form. The ground floor remains largely in use as an open, functional area, though rear access where the motor trolley shed was once located no longer exists. The original staircase survives, accessed from a room to the right of the loading area, leading to upper storeys arranged in a simple plan of small rooms accessed from spinal corridors. Most rooms have been subdivided, fireplaces removed, and new cornices added. Some original doors survive, including a glazed door and screen on the second floor, but little else remains.

History

The main Albion Brewery began trading on Whitechapel Road in 1808. Surviving buildings on the main site date from the 1860s and around 1902 to 1905 and are Grade II-listed. The Edwardian period produced the brewery's most striking buildings, particularly the remodelled fermenting house featuring a pedimented gable set between carved volutes, clock, and a carved relief of St George and the Dragon, described in the Buildings of England volume for East London as displaying a 'show-off Baroque style'. The architects William Bradford and Sons specialised in highly decorative brewery architecture and may have designed 27a Mile End Road, to which the same stylistic description applies equally well.

The first resident was Brewery Engineer William George Bartle. The building also functioned as a distribution centre for barrels of beer. A motor trolley shed with steel truss roof and ridge lighting was built in 1905, accessed through the large central carriage arch. At that time, stabling and cart sheds dating to the 1880s stood to the rear. Shire horses remained the principal means of distributing barrels, but in 1904 the brewery purchased its first 'motor carriage', and the new motor trolley shed was built in anticipation of growing motorised transport replacing dray horses.

In 1941 a bomb killed twenty-five horses, seriously damaged the stables and sheds, and removed the roof of the main building at 27a Mile End Road. The roof was presumably patched until 1984, when the building was refurbished and a mansard and gable added to the upper storey. The motor trolley shed, old stabling, and cart sheds were considered too badly damaged for repair and were demolished. Their sites were redeveloped with residential blocks by Proctor Matthews in 1999 to 2000.