Rosemount Factory, Rosemount Avenue, Derry

Rosemount Factory is a large four-storey brick former shirt factory erected in 1904 for A.B. Grant & Son, designed by local architect M.A. Robinson. The premises occupy the north-west side of Rosemount Avenue at its junction with Rosemount Gardens. The main factory building is aligned north-east to south-west along the street frontage, with miscellaneous original and later returns and ancillary buildings to the rear.

The factory has a modern replacement shallow monopitched roof of profiled insulated metal sheeting, although the original roof was apparently of felted timber. It is accessed through the top floor of the rear toilet stack. A low brick blocking parapet runs along the front and sides with modern metal safety railing to the rear. The parapet has a painted concrete coping and recessed rectangular brick panels to the south-east and south-west elevations, but is plain to the north-east. Half-round plastic gutters and plastic down pipes serve the rear. The walls are of red brick except to the rear (north-west) which is rendered smooth and unpainted.

The principal elevation faces south-east onto Rosemount Avenue and is seventeen openings wide, arranged in a symmetrical composition except for the ground floor doorways. A slightly advanced basal course with chamfered brick coping runs along the base. A painted chamfered concrete cill course runs across the façade at ground floor window level. More elaborate moulded concrete cill courses run across the facade between ground and first floors, and between second and third floors. Both these cill courses also form the cornices of entablatures underlined by a row of moulded brick specials. The friezes contain regularly-spaced circular and square brick panels and extended keystones above the windows below. A moulded concrete eaves cornice runs along the bottom of the roof parapet but without a frieze. Up-facing spotlights are affixed to the first floor cill course, and two satellite dishes are mounted on the elevation.

All the ground floor openings have semicircular brick heads with slightly advanced moulded brick architraves and painted concrete keystones. A moulded brick string course runs across the facade at arch spring level. Of the seventeen ground floor openings, five are doorways, all with replacement timber doors with glazed overlights. The windows are replacement double-glazed uPVC casements (3x1-over-2x2) with security grilles. All the upper floor openings contain modern uPVC casement windows without metal grilles. The first and second floor windows 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 to the first floor are semicircular, whereas those to the second floor are three-centred. The first floor windows share a common cill, while the second floor ones have individual painted concrete cills with a moulded brick string course under each cill, creating the effect of two-storey arcading. The third floor windows are also set in three-centred recesses with similarly detailed hood moulds but without keystones; the windows themselves also have three-centred heads.

Each floor of the south-west gable is delineated by a painted concrete cill course. Those between ground and first floors and between second and third floors are detailed as the façade with moulded courses and entablature beneath, whereas that between first and second floors is a plain common cill underlined with a moulded brick string course. The eaves and parapet are detailed as the frontage. The ground floor of the gable is two openings wide. At left is a wide three-centred archway with advanced moulded brick architrave and raised concrete keystone, now infilled with brick. At right is a window detailed as the façade with a chamfered concrete cill continuing the line along the frontage, as does the string course which runs the full width of the gable at arch spring level. The upper floors are three openings wide. Each opening contains a semicircular-headed 3x1-over-2x2 uPVC window with moulded brick architraves, stop-ended hood moulds and string courses at arch spring level. The second floor window heads also have keystones.

The north-west (rear) elevation is of smooth cement-rendered brick throughout. It is abutted by a double-pile, two-storey later extension at left, a five-storey toilet stack at middle, and a four-storey stairwell towards its right-hand (south-west) end. The latter two returns are original and between them is a one-storey link to an ancillary building. All windows to the exposed parts of this elevation have flat or shallow-segmental, slightly-advanced rendered heads, concrete cills and 2x3-paned uPVC windows.

The toilet stack is a five-storey, three-openings-wide return, the top of which extends above the eaves and gives access to the roof of the factory. Its roof is of felted timber. The walls are cement-rendered and contain flat-headed openings. Later doors have been added to the ground floor on all three exposed elevations, with windows having advanced rendered heads, concrete cills and 2x2 uPVC windows to upper floors. A blank band of cement render crosses the top floor of the north-west elevation, possibly the location of a painted sign originally.

The stairwell is four storeys high and a single opening wide, with a monopitched metal-clad roof that is a continuation of that on the main factory, with a steel railing around it. The walls are smooth cement-rendered. It is abutted at north-east and north-west by the ancillary building. A door to the ground floor with 2x2 overlight and 2x2 uPVC windows to upper floors on the north-west and south-west sides have shallow segmental rendered heads and concrete cills.

The north-east gable is abutted by a two-storey house which is the end of a terrace of five such houses formerly associated with the factory. A chimney rises up the left-hand side of the gable from the house. There are no openings to this elevation.

The ancillary buildings comprise a disused one-storey link building between the toilet stack and stairwell, with a pitched corrugated metal roof and cement-rendered walls. This connects with a two-storey high building with a double-hipped natural slate roof, half-round plastic gutters, and cement-rendered brick walls. The ground floor has mostly modern window and door insertions, but the first floor retains original window openings with shallow segmented heads, concrete cills and 1-over-1 uPVC windows. A brick chimney rises from the west corner of this building. The south-west elevation is abutted by a double-pile, single-storey building with pitched and hipped natural slate and corrugated-asbestos roofs, partly rendered brick walls with miscellaneous flat-headed openings, some probably original and others later.

A modern extension abuts the north-west side of the rear elevation. Although it has the appearance of a refurbished 19th-century engine house, it is in fact of very recent construction, dating to the early 2000s. It features pitched natural slate roofs with skylights, doorways to the ground floor and semicircular-headed window openings to upper floors with cement-rendered architraves and concrete cills. A shallow pitch-roofed, cement-rendered, single-storey entrance abuts the middle of the north-west elevation.

Directly opposite the factory is a bowling green, beside which is a car park belonging to Brooke Park Leisure Centre. Mature trees align the street frontage to the leisure centre. At the rear of the buildings is a tarmaced car park. The premises are otherwise surrounded by houses, including a red-brick terrace built at the same time as the factory and attached to the north-west end.