Downings Malthouse Extension

GLOUCESTER

SO8217 MERCHANTS' ROAD 844-1/15/199 (West side) 12/03/73 Downing's Malthouse Extension (Formerly Listed as: BAKER'S QUAY Gloucester & Sharpness Canal Malthouse (G & WE Downing))

GV II

Malthouse. A large extension to Downing's Malthouse (qv) on east side of Merchants' Road, with a gallery bridge linking both buildings at high level above the road. 1899-1901. By Walter B Wood of Gloucester, for G and WE Downing, maltsters; various C20 alterations. MATERIALS: red brick with white brick and stone details, cast-iron colonnade, internally iron columns, slate roofs behind stone coped gables and parapets. PLAN: a pair of similar, parallel, end-gabled blocks on north-south axis, the blocks originally separated by narrow gap later infilled with structure faced at south end with corrugated iron, and the west side of the west block projecting over Baker's Quay, its west wall supported on a colonnade above the revetment wall facing the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal; at the north end a large cross range which once contained kilns. EXTERIOR: six storeys, cellar and loft; in parallel blocks each gable-end wall of five bays and the side walls of ten bays, with tall ground floor storey capped by a raised ashlar band; bays on the upper floors framed by strip pilasters and quoin strips; a horizontal strip across the bases of each gable and deep, raking strips, stepped on the undersides, on the faces of the gable copings; on each side a deep, strip cornice, with raised panels above each pilaster strip, applied to the parapet; at each-floor level a narrow band of contrasting bricks. On the side of the east block facing Merchants' Road in second bay from left a doorway to offices on the ground floor at south end, the doorway within a recess with cambered-arched head, at the top of the recess a stone panel with carved inscription "G & W.E DOWNING" above "MALTSTERS"; on stone lintel over doorway in the centre "OFFICES" flanked by small panels inscribed "BUILT" and "1901"; in bays to each side of doorway and in north gable-end wall large windows to offices with keystones in segmental-arched heads, otherwise in both blocks, on ground floor at high level, and in most bays to

each upper floor small windows with cambered-arched heads, now infilled in brick. On the west side of the west block the upper floors supported above Baker's Quay by a colonnade of 13 cast-iron columns with moulded caps and bases set on the revetment. The block at the north end is lower, of three storeys, and three bays to east and fourteen bays on north side, and with similar pilaster strips, quoin strips, parapets, contrasting storey bands and window openings in each bay on the east side, but on the north side mostly in alternate bays. INTERIOR: some original staircases. Kilns shown in original drawings. (Gloucester Records Office: D2460 Drawings 1-C).

Listing NGR: SO8258517943