Former Engineer's Residence to Albion Brewery, Bethnal Green, London

Description

788/0/10254 MILE END ROAD
24-FEB-09 27A
Former Engineer's residence to Albion
Brewery

II
Former Brewery Engineer's house, c1905, for Mann, Crossman and Paulin's Albion Brewery. Possibly by William Bradford and Sons. Holland and Hannen, builders. Mansard and gable added c1984 to designs by John Taylor and Associates. Later alterations.

EXTERIOR: The building abuts the Grade I-listed Trinity Almshouses to the east and the Proctor Matthews development of shops and flats to the west and north. Its public frontage, the principal area of architectural interest, is to Mile End Road and is constructed with yellow stock brick with stone dressings and a copper cupola. On the ground floor is a central carriage arch flanked by two blind arches to the ground floor, in brick to the centre, stone to the sides), all with prominent stone voussoirs and keystones; the right-hand blind arch now contains modern glazing. The central arch is quite grand, topped with a segmental pediment and two large stone finials with the original iron lantern hanging over the large timber double doors with glazed upper portions. The upper storeys are set back at a different angle to the ground floor, but the bays project forward from east to west. The westernmost bay, a corner turret, is decorated with a variety of features: shell-topped niches, panels of carved stonework, colonettes with spiral carving, and a copper dome with finial. The first floor is similarly exuberant, entirely clad in stone with mullion and transom windows, more barber-shop colonettes and a prominent curved bay window with copper roof. The second floor is plainer, with decoration limited to the baluster colonettes on the single mullioned window. These mullions and the bulging capitals flanking the main carriage entrance are interesting mannerist touches. The attic storey is largely work of 1984, but in keeping with the Edwardian style. It has a large central scalloped gable and slate mansard roofs to either side, an imaginative remodelling of the building which successfully picks up and interprets the tone and detail of the original. An attractive post-modernist intervention, it contributes to the special interest of the building. The elevations to the side and rear are plain stock brick with (mostly replaced) windows.

INTERIOR: The building has been refurbished but retains vestiges of its original plan form. The ground floor remains largely in use as an open, functional area but there is no longer access from the rear of the building where the motor trolley shed was once located. The original staircase survives, accessed from a room to the right of the loading area, and leads to the upper storeys which are arranged in a simple plan of small rooms accessed from spinal corridors. Most of the rooms have been subdivided, the fireplaces removed and new cornices added. Some original doors survive, including a glazed door and screen on the second floor, but little else.

HISTORY: The main Albion Brewery was further west on Whitechapel Road and began trading in 1808. The surviving buildings on the main site date from the 1860s and c1902-5 and are Grade II-listed. It was the Edwardian period that gave the brewery its most striking buildings, in particular the remodelled fermenting house which has a pedimented gable set between carved volutes, clock and a carved relief of St George and the Dragon, in what the Buildings of England volume for East London describes as a 'show-off Baroque style'. The architects were William Bradford and Sons, a firm which specialised in highly-decorative brewery architecture, and who may have also designed the building at 27a Mile End Road. Certainly the stylistic tag applies equally well here.

The first resident was Brewery Engineer William George Bartle, but the building also functioned as a distribution centre for barrels of beer. A motor trolley shed with a steel truss roof and ridge lighting was also built in 1905, accessed through the large central carriage arch to the house. At that time there was stabling and cart sheds dating to the 1880s to the rear of the new buildings. Shire horses were still the principal means of distributing barrels, but in 1904 the brewery had purchased its first 'motor carriage' and the new motor trolley shed was no doubt built in anticipation of growing use of motorised transport in place of dray horses.

In 1941 a bomb killed twenty-five horses, seriously damaged the stables and sheds, and removed the roof of the main building at 27a Mile End Road. The roof was presumably patched up until 1984, when the building was refurbished and a mansard and gable added to the upper storey. The motor trolley shed, old stabling and cart sheds were considered too badly damaged for repair, however, and demolished. Their sites were redeveloped with residential blocks by Proctor Matthews in 1999-2000.

SOURCES: Tower Hamlets Local History Library, Drainage Application Plan dated 21 July 1905
H Janes, Albion Brewery 1808-1958 (c1958) 80-81
Goad Insurance Plans

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION: The former brewery engineer's house is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* of special architectural interest as a flamboyant and richly-detailed building in the Edwardian Baroque style with mannerist touches;
* high-quality stonework used generously and to good effect;
* the building is sensitive to its context, with its upper storeys set back to respect the scale of the neighbouring C17 Trinity Almshouses and the cartouches on the arches referencing the style of these highly-significant buildings;
* historic association with the main Albion Brewery buildings on Whitechapel Road, which are Grade II-listed.

Reasons for Listing

The former Albion Brewery Engineer's residence at 27a Mile End Road is designated for the following principal reasons:

* of special architectural interest as a flamboyant and richly-detailed building in the Edwardian Baroque style with mannerist touches;
* high-quality stonework used generously and to good effect;
* the building is sensitive to its context, with its upper storeys set back to respect the scale of the neighbouring C17 Trinity Almshouses and the cartouches on the arches referencing the style of these highly-significant buildings;
* historic association with the main Albion Brewery buildings on Whitechapel Road, which are Grade II-listed.

External Links

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.