Rodboro Buildings

SU 94NE GUILDFORD BRIDGE STREET (South Side)

Rodboro 3/4 Buildings 31/7/86 II Factory. Circa 1900, extended in circa 1903. Brown brick with red brick dressings on steel frame, with rendered cladding and risers on the ground floor. Slate roofs, hipped on the left hand range and with parallel, part-glazed gabled ranges to right. Rectangular plan on an island site with the north east corner curving around the junction of Bridge and Onslow Streets. Three storeys with gable-lit attics; stacks to front and rear at junction of ranges. Bridge Street facade:- double gable-end range of 12 bays to right with giant end pilasters under moulded caps and further giant pilasters to centre of each range. Brick dentil band to gables and brick string courses on first and ground floors, cornice to eaves. Keyed, brick-edged rounds to each gable, four fixed windows with glazing-bars, the centre four panes pivoting, to each gable on first and second floors. Gauged brick soldier arches over each window. Original ground floor showroom windows now blocked and central pilaster piers truncated. Five bay curved range wrapping around the corner to left with pier buttresses articulating between bays. Each bay with two windows on each floor, moulded brick eaves and blocked ground floor fenestration. Further five-bay range to left facing Onslow Street with similar articulation and fenestrations; the ground floor piers retain square floral panels in the capitals. Rear elevation:- Irregular fenestration with cambered heads to windows. Seven windows across both floors to right, of varying widths, 9 windows across the gabled ranges. Blocked doors and windows on the ground floor. The factory originally accommodated the manufacturing plant and equipment for the production of touring cars, motor buses and commercial vehicles, including the fire engine, designed by the Dennis Company. It was also used for experimental work and the most important development was the Dennis "worm-driven" rear axle. The showrooms of the Company originally occupied the ground floor, the manufacturing being on the upper floors, and thus the building was one of the first, if not the first, purpose-built car factories in England and the world. The company archives are deposited at Guildford Muniment Room and original building plans are held by the Guildford Borough Council.

"Why Dennis and How" (Guildford 1945) by R. Twelvetrees. pp 60 - 74 "Factory Facts" and ill. opposite p.61.

Listing NGR: SU9940749558