Description

TQ5389
940/4/10012

ELVET AVENUE, Romford
Railway Factory

II

Railway engineering works. 1843-47 for the Eastern Counties Railway. Stock brick; tarred slate roofs. 3 parallel blocks: north block by railway lines of 1843, interior altered 1847; south block 1847; engine shed to south of south block 1847.

North block north front is symmetrical 11-window range. 2 storeys. Central entrance with semi-circular artificial stone arch with keyblock. Ground-floor fenestration of round-headed tripartite windows with multiple panes and gauged arches, the pair immediately flanking entrance of smaller size. Platband at first floor. First-floor windows are tripartite casements under straight gauged skewback arches. Clasping corner pilasters connected by low parapet. Centre of elevation with tall square water tower with clasping pilasters, applied pediment on console volutes and hipped roof. Main roof hipped. East and west returns with single-bay elevation to front office wing: arched entrance to ground floor and one tripartite casement above.
Factory works behind: 13-window range south front; east and west returns of 5 windows. South front with 13 arched openings under gauged arches originally containing double-hung timber doors with glazed upper parts. These doors now without hinges (hinge pins remain). Timber tympani with 4-paned fixed windows. Original double doors remain in seventh bay (from west) under an elevated walkway linking north and south blocks. Platband below parapet. West half raised into 2 storeys late C19, without windows. Returns with arched fenestration as north front, but north window on west return converted to doorway. On this front the late C19 raised portion also without openings. Hipped roof with full-length louvred ventilation lantern.
INTERIOR: 2 storey internal wall to north with round arched openings, some blocked, platband at first floor below tripartite casements. Factory space divided into 4 aisles in 13 bays by wooden posts to west 6 bays and by cast-iron columns to east 7 bays; the latter inserted 1847. Timber tie beams supporting queen-post roof.

South block consists of 13-window range to north and south in 2 storeys with clasping corner pilasters and hipped roof. At east and west ends is a 2-window single storey block linking to a higher range at right angles. North front of central portion with double timber doors in each of the 13 gauged arched openings. Upper part of doors glazed; tympani with 4-paned fixed lights. Platband at first floor. First-floor fenestration of tripartite casements. South front similar except ground-floor openings contain arched casements with multiple panes, the central one over a doorway. Hipped roof with full-length gabled lantern.
Blocks at right angles with 3 round-headed boarded windows to returns set in recessed gauged brick arches. Altered fenestration to east and west elevations. Hipped roofs each with weatherboarded hipped lantern with 2 12-paned fixed windows each side.
INTERIOR: 13 bays in 3 aisles created by internal cast-iron columns linking cast-iron architrave on which stands further, smaller, cast-iron columns supporting the central glazed lantern. Timber A-frame roof trusses. Cast-iron beams connect the architrave to the side walls at each column. Balustraded elevated walkway in centre. South aisle floored. Arched opening at east end into 2-bay link and cross wing.

Engine house to south: single storey; symmetrical 7-window range. Recessed centre with round-headed multiple paned casement. 3 similar, taller, casements to side bays. Round-headed doorway to west return, late C20 double doors to east return. West side bays carry riveted steel water tank on roof (corresponding tank on east side removed C20). Tall tapering circular chimneystack.
INTERIOR: not inspected.

Listing NGR: TQ5349189631

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q27084431

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990: Updated version
• 
  Yorkshire: York and the East Riding (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)
• 
  Gloucestershire 1: The Cotswolds: Cotswolds Pt. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Yorkshire West Riding: Sheffield and the South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Staffordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)