General, Fairfield Shipyard And Engine Works, 1048 Govan Road, Glasgow

Angus Kennedy: 1st drawings December 1868, working

details summer 1869, completed 1871, in full production

1. Engine Works approx 300' square, with 2 erecting

shops added to W by Wm Arrol in 1906 and 1916.

S elevation: giant classical brick facade, 9 bays, each

separated by paired pilasters. 1869 Engine Works: 7

bays masking fitting/machine shops and 3 intermediate

galleried bays. Bays fronting galleries and 4th, W,

machine shop have 2 ground floor round-headed windows

and 2 1st floor windows, all blocked. 1st E, machine

shop: round arched doorway and original massive wooden

hinged door with multi-paned iron-framed glazed light

above and 2 42-paned windows. 2nd shop bigger moulded

keystoned arch, over 30-foot tall, with multi-paned

glazing over modern roller door. 3rd machine shop

identical except blocked door.

Side Walls: 9-bay, with 3 tall arched and keystoned

doorways, part blocked, between pilasters. The other

bays had tall round-headed windows, blocked in 19th

century and false 1st floor windows (never glazed). E.

wall now behind metal cladding. W wall seen from 1906

erecting shop.

N Wall is similar to S but with a circa 1920 building

attached.

Entablature, cornice, slate roof glazed at ridge. Behind

the perimeter ridges, roofs over machine shops are glazed

and over galleries slated (all as built).

2 W bays (Wm Arrol): 1st bay 1906, built to match Boiler

Shop at E (by A Myles 1889, demolished). Paired

pilasters and large central arched doorway, flanking

round-headed windows and 4 upper level windows in

panels, all false. W bay, 1916, similar but wider, with

modern cladding to W wall.

Most windows were blocked before 1900, and those along

sides and in Arrol block were always blind.

Interior: 4 machine, turning and fitting shops aligned

N-S, each 300' long with 50' spans. 3 intermediate

gallery bays, 30' spans, formerly held 2 upper levels for

lighter work, tool room millwrights etc. (upper galleries

and parts of lower galleries removed 1938, but part

remains at S end of eastmost gallery). Internal brick

buttresses stretch about 10' into the works to strengthen

wall at ends of each row of stanchions. 6 rows of 8

cast-iron I-section stanchions. Each stanchion carries 3

pairs of bracing struts branching out to carry 2 cast-iron

box girders at gallery levels and larger top malleable iron

girder for travelling crane. Top struts are timber, and

carry timber king-post roofs. New breeze block partition

between 2nd gallery and 3rd machine shop. Some

stanchions are encased in concrete. Brick walls have

relief arches and fittings for jib cranes.

Arrol's erecting shops at W: internal steel frame carries

crane girders. Ridge and furrow steel tie glazed roof on

steel lattice girders.