Description

Built from circa 1855.

Cook Street: 3-storey, 4-bay 17-bay ashlar block, originally fitting shop, later machine shop, now stores, canteen and offices. Ashlar front and sides, brick rear. 10-paned windows with stone margins. 2 ground floor windows have doors inserted and 1 large arched blocked doorway. Eaves cornice, slate roof. 2 Eastern office bays separated by brick party wall and chimney.

Interior: Western part 3-storey, cast-iron columns with square-section fittings for shafting carry rivetted wrought-iron beams which probably replaced earlier timber beams. 7 bays between office and arched door fronted a high ground floor fitting shop with iron stanchions and gantry.

3rd floor finishing shop.

3-storey former lodge building E of Cook Street block, c.1870-1880, with modern accretions.

West Street: 1-storey 1-bay brick engine house (powered the whole works) arched fanlit window and slate roof circa 1855. 4-storey and attic 9-bay brick block circa 1855. Ground floor arched windows with keystones, yellow brick margins and iron frames. Large arched doorway filled in. Upper floor windows have 16-pane iron framed glazing pattern, yellow brick lintels and stone cills. Slate roof.

Interior: ground floor smithy and boiler, later weighing-machine shop. 1st floor pattern maker's shop. 1 row of iron columns with square-section fittings for former shafting. Wooden beams and floors. 2nd, 3rd and attic floors pattern stores with stout iron columns and wooden beams. To south, brick fronts to 2 machine shops. 1st 1866-8 2-storey 4-bay high arched metal framed windows, stone cornice and parapet fronting erecting shop. Ground floor circa 1855, originally fronted boiler shop. Adjacent boiler shop 1874-5.

4-arched windows and a very large arched doorway with ashlar keystones and original timber doors. Stone cornice, brick parapet. South wall brick, buttressed with large arches and oculi, some filled in.

Interior: Internal aisles, North to South: 1. Light fitting shop: steel stanchions and modern roof over former yard, bounded on 3 sides by front blocks. 2. Heavy fitting shop: formerly general shop. North side has 5 tall H-section stanchions, which carry rail for travelling crane, 2 with jib cranes attached. South wall brick circa 1868 relieving arches, some pierced. Iron rail above and a thinner brick parapet with oculi. Wide kingpost timber roof. 3. Heavy machine shop: former Erecting Shop. Brick arcade with oculi on north side, plain brick buttresses on south side, with 2 arches, circa 1868. Kingpost timber roof. 4. Light machine shop: former Boiler Shop. North wall plain brick buttresses, south brick arcade with oculi. Kingpost timber roof, circa 1874-5. 5. Fabrication shop, former smithy: only north wall, a corbelled brick arcade with oculi, part visible from West Street, included in listing. A railway runs North-South through the works. Traces of shaft supports remain in the walls.

Statement of Interest

Built for A & W Smith, general engineers specialising in sugar machinery manufacture. Now Smith Mirrlees; this is the only such works still operating in the UK.

The works recently expanded over Tradeston Street. Aisles 2-4 extended by about 4 bays each are steel clad and are not included in the list. The modern offices and the southern fabrication shop are also excluded. The main rectangle survives from the 19th century. The works includes

examples of every phase in the construction of engineering works, from multi-storey blocks to brick arched shops to iron framed and late steel framed aisles.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17568870

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

• 
  A Buying and Owning a Listed Building: A Brief Guide
• 
  Wiltshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  London 4: North: North v. 4 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Surrey (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Sussex: East with Brighton and Hove (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)