Rosemount Factory, Rosemount Avenue, Derry

Rosemount Factory is a large, four-storey red brick former shirt factory built in 1904 on the north-western side of Rosemount Avenue, at its junction with Rosemount Gardens, in Derry. It was erected for A.B. Grant & Son, shirt and collar manufacturers, and designed by local architect Matthew Alexander Robinson, who had trained with Young & McKenzie of Belfast before becoming an assistant to John Lanyon. Robinson established his own practice in Derry in 1898 and was later appointed City Surveyor in 1909. The building was constructed by H. Laverty & Son of Belfast. It bears a striking resemblance to Lanyon's Jennymount Mill, built in 1891, and is considered a fine example of a 'second generation' shirt factory. It is of architectural, structural, social, and economic importance, and is one of a number of such factories that made Londonderry the 'shirt capital of the world' in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, providing employment to many generations of women.

The factory building itself is aligned north-east to south-west along the street frontage, with miscellaneous original and later outbuildings and returns to the rear. The roof has been replaced with a shallow monopitched covering of profiled insulated metal sheeting (Kingspan); the original roof was apparently of felted timber construction. A low brick parapet with painted concrete coping runs along the front and sides, with modern metal safety railing along the rear. The parapet has recessed rectangular brick panels to the south-east and south-west elevations but is plain to the north-east. Drainage is by half-round plastic gutters and plastic downpipes to the rear. The walls are of red brick to all elevations except the rear (north-western) face, which is smoothly rendered and unpainted.

The principal elevation faces south-east onto Rosemount Avenue and is seventeen openings wide. It is of symmetrical composition, except at ground floor level where the doorways break the regularity. A slightly advanced basal course with chamfered brick coping runs along the base. A painted chamfered concrete cill course crosses the façade at ground floor window level. More elaborate moulded concrete cill courses run across the façade between the ground and first floors and between the second and third floors. These cill courses also serve as the cornices of entablatures: each entablature is underlined by a row of moulded brick specials, and its frieze is decorated with regularly spaced circular and square brick panels, with extended keystones above the windows below. A moulded concrete eaves cornice also runs along the bottom of the roof parapet, though without a frieze beneath it. Up-facing spotlights are fixed to the first floor cill course, and two satellite dishes are present on the façade.

All seventeen ground floor openings have semicircular brick heads with slightly advanced moulded brick architraves and painted concrete keystones. A moulded brick string course also runs across the façade at arch spring level. Of the seventeen ground floor openings, five are doorways, all fitted with replacement timber doors with glazed overlights. The remaining ground floor windows are replacement double-glazed uPVC casements (three-over-one lights above, two-over-two below) with security grilles. All upper floor openings also contain modern uPVC casement windows, without metal grilles. Those to the first and second floors are set in recesses with three-centred arched heads embellished with painted concrete keystones and moulded brick stop-ended hood moulds. The actual window heads at first floor level are semicircular, while those at second floor level are three-centred. Additionally, while the first floor windows share a common cill, the second floor windows have individual painted concrete cills with a moulded brick string course beneath each — an arrangement that reads visually as two-storey arcading. The third floor windows are also set in three-centred recesses with similarly detailed hood moulds but without keystones, and the windows themselves also have three-centred heads.

The south-western gable has each floor delineated by a painted concrete cill course. Those between the ground and first floors and between the second and third floors are detailed to match the main façade — that is, moulded and with entablatures beneath — whereas the one between the first and second floors is a plain common cill underlined with a moulded brick string course. The eaves and parapet are detailed in the same manner as the frontage. At ground floor level the gable is two openings wide: on the left is a wide three-centred archway with an advanced moulded brick architrave and raised concrete keystone, now infilled with brick; on the right is a window detailed as the main façade. The chamfered concrete cill is a continuation of that along the frontage, and the string course at arch spring level runs the full width of the gable. The upper floors of the gable are three openings wide, each containing a semicircular-headed uPVC window (three-over-one above, two-over-two below) with moulded brick architraves, stop-ended hood moulds, and string courses at arch spring level. There are also keystones to the second floor window heads.

The north-western rear elevation is of smooth cement-rendered brick throughout. It is abutted by a double-pile two-storey later extension at the left, a five-storey toilet stack (1a) in the middle, and a four-storey stairwell (1b) towards its right-hand south-western end. The toilet stack and stairwell are original; between them is a one-storey link to an ancillary building. All windows on the exposed parts of this rear elevation have flat or shallow segmental slightly advanced rendered heads, concrete cills, and two-by-three-paned uPVC windows.

The toilet stack (1a) is a five-storey return, three openings wide, whose top extends above the main eaves and provides access to the factory roof. Its own roof is of felted timber construction. Walls are cement-rendered with flat-headed openings. Doors and later abutting additions are present at ground floor level, while upper floors on all three exposed elevations have windows with advanced rendered heads, concrete cills, and two-by-two uPVC windows. A blank band of cement render across the top floor of its north-western elevation may originally have carried a painted sign. The stairwell (1b) is four storeys high and a single opening wide, with a monopitched metal-clad roof that is a continuation of the main factory roof, with a steel railing around it. Its walls are of smooth cement render. It has a door at ground floor level with a two-by-two overlight, and two-by-two uPVC windows to the upper floors on both the north-western and south-western sides, all with shallow segmental rendered heads and concrete cills. The stairwell is abutted to the north-east and north-west by the ancillary building. The north-eastern gable is abutted by a two-storey house forming the end of a terrace of five houses formerly associated with the factory. A chimney rises up the left-hand side of the gable from this house, and there are no openings in this gable elevation.

Between the two original returns (1a and 1b) lies a disused one-storey link building (2a) with a pitched corrugated metal roof and cement-rendered walls. This connects to a two-storey building (2b) with a double-hipped natural slate roof, half-round plastic gutters, and cement-rendered brick walls. The ground floor of this building has mostly modern window and door insertions, but the first floor retains its original window openings, with shallow segmental heads, concrete cills, and one-over-one uPVC windows. A brick chimney (2c) rises from the western corner of this building. Its south-western elevation is abutted by a double-pile single-storey building (2d) with pitched and hipped roofs of natural slate and corrugated asbestos, partly rendered brick walls, and miscellaneous flat-headed openings, some probably original and others later insertions.

A third element on the site is a modern extension (3) which, despite having the appearance of a refurbished 19th century engine house, is in fact of very recent construction from the early 2000s. It has pitched natural slate roofs with skylights, doorways at ground floor level, and semicircular-headed window openings to the upper floors with cement-rendered architraves and concrete cills. A shallow pitch-roofed, cement-rendered, single-storey entrance abuts the middle of its north-western elevation.

Internally, the factory is of structural interest for its metal beam and cast-iron column construction, which created the spacious open-plan floors typical of shirt factory design. A semblance of the original open-plan arrangement can still be seen on the top two floors; the remaining floors have been subdivided to accommodate small businesses.

The factory first appears on the 1904 Ordnance Survey map, captioned 'Shirt Factory', already depicted with a large rear extension and the terrace of five associated houses on its north-eastern gable. The 1905 Valuation Revision Book records it as a "shirt factory" with a rateable valuation of £350, reduced on appeal to £275 in 1907, with no further changes to the valuation records apart from an increase to £316 in 1930. The 1932 and 1948 Ordnance Survey maps show the same overall footprint as the 1904 edition; the 1948 map captions the site as "Factory (Shirt & Collar)". Messrs Grant were still in operation in 1950, after which the factory was taken over by Kollerton Ltd. Following the cessation of shirt production, the factory was refurbished by Rosemount Developments (Derry) Ltd and let out to a variety of small businesses. In 2013, as part of Derry's Lumiere Festival, the artist Tim Etchell erected a sign reading "A Stitch in Time" along the roof frontage, measuring 23 metres long by 2 metres high.

The factory is set directly opposite a bowling green, beside which is a car park belonging to Brooke Park Leisure Centre. Mature trees line the street frontage opposite. To the rear of the buildings is a tarmacked car park. The site is otherwise surrounded by housing, including the red brick terrace built at the same time as the factory and attached to its north-eastern end. The large open space of the bowling green and the mature trees help to preserve the factory's commanding presence on Rosemount Avenue.