Premises Of A.J. Tear And Co. Ltd. On Corner Of Dunster St. And Overstone Rd. (Former Curriers Works)

The premises, located on the corner of Dunster Street and Overstone Road, were originally a currier’s works, constructed around 1878. The building is primarily red brick with a slate roof, hipped at the corner and featuring coped gable ends and stacks to the Dunster Street gable ends. It is three storeys in height with a two-storey extension to the Dunster Street side, arranged in a V-shaped plan.

The building incorporates iron-framed windows on the ground and first floors, alongside wooden sashes to a canted end and parts of the Overstone Road front. A particularly unusual feature is the top floor’s wooden-framed windows, which combine glazing bars over louvred panels. The Dunster Street front has a ten-window range to the first floor, followed by two windows on the canted corner and a further five windows, with a taking-in door, to the Overstone Road front. The top floor’s continuous combination windows are arranged in a pattern of 5:1:3 across the three fronts. Entrance doors are located on the canted corner and to the right of the Dunster Street front. The extension to the right of the Dunster Street front may have originally served as an engine house, as indicated by a 1899 insurance plan, which depicts it containing a gas engine. An interior yard also includes fully louvred ventilation panels to the top floor.

Internally, the building features wide timber ceiling beams supporting joists, alongside Queen strut roof trusses. The mechanism for operating the louver openings is partially intact. A rendered and colourwashed brick house/offices are attached, with a slate roof and coped gable. It has a three-window range to the first floor, with 20th-century windows in the original openings. The ground floor features two windows beneath a fascia and cornice, along with a door set within a doorcase embellished with brackets and a cornice. A carriage entrance is located on the right side.

Historical records indicate that William Collier operated a currier's business here in 1878/9, and the 1883-4 Ordnance Survey map displays the full range of buildings. Goulding and Co. occupied the premises in the 1890s, and in the early 20th century, the building functioned as a leather warehouse. It has been used as a bedding and upholstery factory since the 1950s. The ventilation system for the top floor, designed for leather storage and drying, is a rare survival, characteristic of practices before the 1890s.

This is a notable and relatively unaltered example of a currier’s works, enhanced by the presence of an attached owner’s/manager’s house. The ensemble forms part of a significant group of buildings associated with the boot and shoe industry in Northampton.