5A & 7, Crabb Street

1740/0/10018 CRABB STREET 23-APR-04 5A & 7

II Boot and shoe factory, now office and dwelling. c.1890. Red brick with blue brick dressings and slate hipped roof. Main range of 3 storeys and basement with lower range of 2 storeys, part with basement. Entrance and taking-in doors on south side. Front is of 3 storeys of a cast-iron framed window on each floor either side a taking-in door, the top one with a crane and hoist beam. Ground floor has door to right and blocked windows to left. All openings have brick segmental arches. Right side to main part of Crabb Street is similar with 6 cast-iron framed windows on each floor. A fine detail is the blue brick band which goes round the building on each floor above the top of the segmental arches. There is a prominent moulded brick eaves cornice. The left side, which is similar on the top floor, is abutted by an extension of c.1900. There is a narrow lower 2-window range of 2 storeys and basement, a former privy tower, which has a curving parapet top, then, to left, the 2-storey office range. This has a door under bracketed hood to far left, 2 carriage openings and an alleyway, and 3 C20 windows in original openings above, with a small window with hoodmould over the entrance door. Further ranges in yard to rear. INTERIOR. Cast-iron columns support the timber ceiling beams on the lower floors. Queen-post roof construction. HISTORY. The complex probably originated as a conventional boot and shoe factory, but by the 1960's and 70's it had become a more specialised slipper factory. SOURCES. EH Northamptonshire Boot and Shoe Survey, Site Report No.53. Morrison, Kathryn A., with Bond, Ann, 'Built to Last? The Boot and Shoe Buildings of Northamptonshire', forthcoming, fig.4.

This is a very good and complete example of a 3-storey and basement factory with virtually contemporary offices and privy tower. A recent careful and unobtrusive conversion has maintained much of the character of a factory interior. This complex also forms a good group with Cunnington Bros. (q.v.) at the top of the street. Together with the much larger Cromwell Works (q.v.) they form a significant trio of boot and shoe factories of the late C19 exemplifying Rushden's expansion as a result of the success of the boot and shoe industry.