Former Tilling-Stevens Factory

Former Tilling-Stevens Factory

The factory is constructed of a regular reinforced concrete grid, expressed throughout the exterior of the building, with the front elevation dressed in concrete to present a classically-styled composition to the street.

The building is composed of a grid of exposed horizontal and vertical reinforced concrete members, which divide the building into 20-foot by 20-foot bays. On the outer faces, the bays are infilled with panels of red brick and glazing. The original windows were multi-light steel casements, but these have almost universally been replaced with uPVC casements.

The building is five storeys high with a small attic storey. The factory floor is L-shaped in plan: the core is three bays wide by sixteen bays deep, with a perpendicular wing to the rear three bays wide by three deep, extending southwards. Another three bay by three bay wing projects to the north, which contains the main goods lift and stair and housed the services and amenities for the building. The front of the building is an additional two bays wide to the north, providing vehicular access at street level. A roadway runs from this entrance, through the centre of the northerly service wing where there is a weigh bridge, and down the side and rear of the building. To the rear there is a projecting stair and lift tower, and to the south there is a second projecting lift tower of later date but appearing to use the same construction system. A third internal fire escape stair on the south side of the building exits onto St Peter's Street at the front.

With the exception of the front, all elevations are without architectural embellishment and form a regular pattern of concrete grid, brick, and glass. The concrete grid is expressed on the front elevation but is also used decoratively to shape the elevation into a classical composition. There is a heavy cornice over the fourth storey, with recessed ribbing and nail-head corner stops. The fifth storey is treated as a classical attic, having smaller windows and a much plainer and shallower cornice above. The true attic storey is three bays wide, central to the elevation and set back from the front. The bays to the far left and right of the elevation are treated as towers, defined by slightly projecting pilaster-like verticals to either side. The capitals of these pilasters take the form of a circular disk, flanked by triglyph-like elements. At ground floor there is a pedestrian and vehicular entrance-exit to either side of the elevation, framed by wide, flat, unmoulded architraves. Above each vehicular opening is a framed panel, which once bore the name of the company, with a stylised tassel motif to either side. This panel with tassels motif is repeated within the parapet above the attic storey.

The exterior is generally little altered, the most notable exception being the replacement of windows. The largest windows to the front were originally 54-light windows, now 12-light; those to the sides and rear were mostly 45-light windows, now 8-light. On the front elevation a doorway has been inserted into the left-hand of the three central bays to give access to a site office from St Peter's Street.

The interior is utilitarian. At each storey, concrete pillars support beams and joists which support the floor above. The pillars get progressively smaller in cross-section at each storey up. Circular holes are cast into the joists, through which a conduit carrying electrical cable ran; in some places slots are cast into beams and joists to carry the motors which were suspended overhead, providing power to the factory machinery. The factory floors, which would have been completely open, are now divided into units with concrete block walls built between pillars. Fixtures and fittings which may have been associated with the service and amenity block—which included an office, boiler house, first-aid rooms, lavatories and rest rooms—do not survive.