Malthouse Number 2 At Junction With Newtons Road

A malthouse built in 1861 by CR Crickmay. The building is constructed of English bond red brickwork with rendering and painted horizontal boarding, and has slate or asbestos-cement slate roofs. The plan is arranged in four units: the malt stove faces Spring Road, with the kilns, malthouse, and steeping-house arranged along a long axis behind it.

The two-storey malt stove has a broad gable facing Spring Road and a short return to Newton’s Road. The upper floor is clad in horizontal boarding, with rendering beneath. A large loading door is flanked by small two-light casements in the gable; at ground floor, a central plank door is flanked by two lights, which were boarded over during the time of survey. The return wall has one two-light casement. Behind the malt stove are two kilns with steep hipped roofs in asbestos-cement slate. These kilns are linked by a platform with conical metal vents. Each kiln has a small high-level light.

The long malting floors are under a broad, low-pitched gabled roof supported by 12 bays of blind arcading brickwork, with a series of 12 arches stepped to reflect the rise in ground level to the south-east. Bays 1-8 are two storeys high, while bays 9-12 are single-storey. The even-numbered bays have segmental-headed openings with a central light and boarded shutters in heavy frames at two levels, while bays 1, 3, 7, and 9 are plain. Bay 5 has a pair of doors set within a segmental head, and bay 11 has an inserted loading door breaking through the head of the arch. The final unit is cross-gabled, with a brick ground floor and a first floor clad in horizontal boarding on timber framing. A loading door gives access to a concrete platform at ground floor.

Internally, the kilns retain much of the equipment from around 1900, including kiln drying floors, a flat-bottomed steep, and evidence of couch frames. The timber malting floors were asphalted in the 1950s. The malthouse forms part of a significant group of brewery structures associated with the Hope Square area, and is no longer in its original use. It is an early example of a maltings designed by an architect, the work of a notable local architect.