Former Caird and Rayner Premises

Former Ships Chandler's Workshop and Industrial Complex

This complex of buildings, situated between Commercial Road and the Limehouse Cut, was developed in two main phases for the firm Caird and Rayner. The earliest element is a former ships chandler's workshop and sail loft, designed by William Cubitt and Company and completed in 1869. This was followed by an engineering workshop and service range, designed by Marshall and Bradley and built between 1893 and 1897.

The complex comprises three principal structures: the ships chandler's workshop forming a roughly rectangular block to the north-west; the engineering workshop adjacent to the east; and the service range built in two phases, which forms the southern frontage onto Commercial Road.

The service range presents a polite Queen Anne-style facade to the street, arranged as a three-storey building. The left portion (numbers 777), built in 1893-1894, consists of three bays, while the right portion (numbers 779-783), built in 1896-1897, contains three further bays. The two sections are unified by continuous storey bands, a glazed brick plinth, and parapets with coping stones. The ground floor of 777 features a central carriageway entrance and a pair of doorways with multiple-pane overlights, which once provided separate access for blue- and white-collar workers. Pilasters separate the bays; the outer two bays have wide window openings whilst the central bay contains pairs of windows. All windows are set beneath segmental arches of rubbed red brick, with red brick keystones to the wider openings. Much original fenestration survives, typically as six-over-two light sashes in tripartite or dipartite arrangements. In the wider right-hand bay, the second-floor window is taller, and above it is a gable with an oeil de boeuf, rebuilt following war damage. The right portion (779-783) features a wide central bay on the upper storeys framed by semi-octagonal pilasters with stone copings, a carriageway entrance on the ground floor, three windows to the first floor, and a wide tripartite window in a round-headed opening to the second floor, beneath a similarly war-damaged gable. The outer bays contain pairs of windows to each floor.

The elevations of the warehouse and engineering workshop are constructed in brown stock brick. The service range is built of red brick with rubbed brick arches and engineering brick lining some ground-floor doorways. Roofs are slate with large glazed roof lights to the engineering workshop; the service range is tiled and has brick chimneystacks.

The north-west elevation of the ships chandler's warehouse, facing the canal, is five bays and two storeys with a basement. It features central loading doorways to the upper floors with windows set in cast-iron multiple-light frames on either side, all beneath gauged brick segmental arches. The south-west return elevation has similar windows. A shallow mansard roof was erected in 2010 after fire damage, replacing the original hipped structure.

The north-west elevation of the engineering workshop, abutting the ships chandler's warehouse, is also two storeys and a basement, divided into three bays indicating the internal arrangement of a central hall with aisles to either side. Seven squat segmental-arched openings light the basement. The ground floor has double doors to the central bay with pairs of windows in the side bays, all in segmental-arched openings with multiple-light metal frames. The first floor is lit by three round-headed windows to the central hall with pairs of windows lighting the aisles. Three ranges of steel-framed glazed hipped roofs top-light the central hall and aisles.

Internally, the ground floor of the ships chandler's warehouse comprises six bays with strutted timber posts beneath long cross heads, some with horizontal struts additionally linking them to the vertical posts. The first floor, originally an exceptionally large sail loft, is divided longitudinally and retains queen rod roof trusses.

The engineering workshop contains a central full-height assembly hall of six bays with galleried side aisles, a wider north-end gallery, and a balcony at the southern end connecting the galleries to the service range. The structure is carried on an internal rolled-steel frame with integral overhead crane gantry, comprising two full-length rolled-steel runway beams set at their outer ends in piers in the load-bearing brick walls, supported by two electric overhead travelling cranes. H-section stanchions marked 'Dorman, Long & Co' and I-section beams and joists supporting the roofs and timber-floored side galleries feature riveted and bolted flange plates. The galleries have a light timber balustrade. The roof is in three pitched glazed ranges, the central one raised with clerestory windows.

In the service range at 777 and the connecting range to the ships chandler's workshop, the ground floor comprises a vehicle yard, an open space formerly used as a smithy, and stores. An open timber stair leads to the first floor, where offices and the original drawing office were located, and the second floor contained the caretaker's flat. In the service range at 779-783, the ground floor has central vehicle access with stores to either side. The first floor contained a new drawing office and dispatch office, whilst the second floor housed the pattern shop. The floors are of Fawcett type, a patented fire-resisting construction employing terracotta blocks on steel joists, with simple joinery and cornices. The various functional areas were carefully planned so that direct communication routes between the assembly floor and galleries, to the drawing office and pattern shop, facilitated design development and inspection.