Walsall Conduits Site

The Walsall Conduits Site, also known as The Sugar House, is a complex of buildings originally used as a sugar refinery and warehouse, now serving as office and warehouse space. It dates primarily to the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, with the right-hand facade constructed in 1922. The building is constructed of brick with Portland stone dressings to the right section, and rendered rubble to the left, with pantile hipped roofs.

The complex comprises a double-depth office block on the right, a warehouse on the left, and a trapezoidal courtyard to the rear, which includes an engine house and a chimney stack. The Edwardian Baroque style office facade features three storeys and a symmetrical front, with the central three windows and roof projecting forward. It has a plinth, quoins, a plat band, a second-floor sill band, and a moulded timber eaves cornice. The doorway is distinguished by a large shell hood on acanthus brackets, over a boarded overlight, and double six-panel doors. The windows have quoins, with keyed architraves and ashlar aprons to the upper windows, containing 8/8-pane sashes. Lower windows contain 6/6-pane sashes. The right return has a two-window range and a gabled rear block. The warehouse has blocked ground floor windows, a carriage arch with 11 stepped voussoirs, and cambered heads to the windows above, with flat heads to those on the left. These windows contain 2-light casements with glazing bars. The warehouse roof is in three hipped sections.

The interior of the office section is reported to include a ground-floor room with complete 18th-century fielded panelling, including an eared fire surround. The structure is variously timber or steel-framed. The central section of the office block appears to be the earliest part, dating to the late 18th or early 19th century. Warehouse details include a mix of rubble and brick walling, with a cast-iron column, one timber post, and one brick post supporting a long flitch beam. The first floor features six chamfered wood posts with pillows to a longitudinal beam, and the second floor has similar supports carrying king post trusses. The ground floor is concrete, while the first and second floors have wide plank flooring. A 20th-century three-storey flat-roofed block of concrete and steel is located behind the courtyard.

Bristol was an important centre for sugar refining and this complex is considered an exceptionally complete and historically important example of such a site, despite alterations.