Wills Number 1 Factory

This is an offices building, formerly a tobacco factory, dating to 1884 and circa 1886. Designed by Sir Frank Wills, it is constructed of red Cattybrook brick, limestone, and slate, and is executed in a Gothic style. It is three storeys high, with a 19-window range.

The front of the building is divided into two distinct sections. To the right is a nine-bay arcade with tall, lancet arches linked by hoods. Below the arches are groups of thin windows stepped down from the cornice and parapet. Within the arcades, a ground floor features a plinth of weatherings beneath a pair of tall, shouldered windows with chamfered jambs, a basketwork brick panel, and a pair of first-floor lancet cross windows with a quatrefoil panel in the tympanum. A central four-storey entrance tower has a machicolated cornice and a French pyramid roof with gablet vents and an iron widow's walk. Open lancet arches with round shafts featuring pedestals and waterleaf capitals, engaged at the sides and with stopped hoods, are located at the base of the tower. First and second floors are set back within a tall, lancet-arched opening, creating a balcony with shaft balusters. First-floor windows are lancets on slender shafts with waterleaf capitals, surmounted by an unmoulded three-light window with heavy mullions and transom. The tower is supported by shallow buttresses. The slightly later, left-hand range comprises 12 taller, lancet-arched bays, united by a matching cornice and parapet, with bays extending upwards to incorporate attic windows. Inside, two storeys feature identical pairs of rectangular windows with slender shafts, waterleaf capitals, basketwork panels, and a large blind quatrefoil in the tympanum.

The original factory behind was demolished in 1988 and rebuilt behind the facade. The ground floor has been opened to create a covered pavement.