Oliver Buildings at the Former Shapland and Petter Factory

Oliver Buildings at the Former Shapland and Petter Factory

This former offices, showroom and furniture factory was built in 1888 to designs by local architect William Clement Oliver (1832–1913). The listing comprises the surviving historic parts of the buildings, excluding later twentieth-century link buildings, white-painted blockwork additions, and internal partitioning.

The buildings are constructed of cream brick with red brick dressings, set partly on a stone plinth, beneath slate roofs. They consist of two unequal ranges: a longer range running roughly east-west with a recessed central stair bay, and a shorter range at right-angles.

The main north-facing range is three storeys with a basement to the rear. It contains two seven-bay ranges separated by a wide stair bay, with paired narrow windows to each floor. The walls are cream brick with red brick quoins, window and door surrounds, and red brick string courses between the floors. The fenestration is regular, with very slightly segmental-arched openings containing multi-paned timber-framed windows with flat red-brick voussoirs. A shallow stone plinth extends downwards to the rear to create a full basement storey. The south elevation has similar fenestration but with single, wider windows to the stair bay. Several door openings serve the basement, and an external stair gives access to the raised ground floor. The gable ends have raised, coped verges and decorative red-brick bands towards the apex.

The north-south range has similar construction. Its main eastern elevation features paired, top-hung sash windows to all three floors, with continuous red-brick cill and lintel bands and a third band between them. The red-brick plinth rises to three storeys and basement. The western elevation includes a projecting stair turret at its northern end with a monopitch roof, and a lean-to extension of two storeys and basement in red brick with rectangular timber windows and plat bands between storeys. This lean-to element is included in the listing.

Internally, both ranges share common construction and detailing. Floors comprise 3-inch timber planks on timber joists. Internally expressed brick piers and door and window recesses have chamfered edges. Both ranges retain their original roof structures, formed from queen-post trusses with angled king-struts and twin purlins.

The main east-west range was historically used as stores and workshops. It is divided by a fireproof stairwell with full-height brick party walls. The dog-leg stair is solid concrete. A lift with metal shuttered doors to each landing is housed in the stairwell. Evidence of the historic sprinkler system survives in the extensive water piping along the ceilings, with hydrants and taps on each landing. A renewed sprinkler system has been installed alongside, making use of some of the historic installation. The building retains a suite of rooms—boardroom, office and showroom—with later twentieth-century or early twenty-first-century panelling and doors featuring inlay and marquetry in various timbers, demonstrating the continued use of the site by Shapland and Petter and later Leaderflush Shapland into the twenty-first century.

The north-south range, historically the showrooms and offices, is narrower but was widened soon after completion by a full-height lean-to extension. Wide segmental-arched openings with chamfered edges, aligned with the window bays, provide access from the main range into the extension. The basement is partly supported on cast-iron columns.

Some spaces have been subdivided into smaller offices using lightweight partitioning that appears to date from the end of the twentieth century. Most of these do not extend to full height and have not compromised the historic fabric. Some areas also have suspended ceilings. These later twentieth-century internal room partitioning and suspended ceilings are excluded from the listing, being declared not to be of special architectural or historic interest.