Mersey Match Factory
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The Mersey Match Factory, later known as The Matchworks, is a former match factory on Speke Road,
Garston, Liverpool Garston is a district of Liverpool, in Merseyside, England. Historically in Lancashire, it is bordered by the suburbs of Aigburth, Allerton, and Speke. It lies on the Eastern banks of the River Mersey. History In medieval times, Garston ...
, England. The factory closed in 1994, and has since been converted into offices and workshops. It had opened in 1921, having been built for Maguire, Paterson and Palmer, and later used by
Bryant and May Bryant & May was a British match manufacturer, which today exists only as a brand name owned by Swedish Match. The company was formed in the mid-19th century as a dry goods trader, with its first match works, the Bryant & May Factory, located ...
. The factory was the first building in the United Kingdom to be constructed using the flat-slab concrete technique. It is recorded in the
National Heritage List for England The National Heritage List for England (NHLE) is England's official database of protected heritage assets. It includes details of all English listed buildings, scheduled monuments, register of historic parks and gardens, protected shipwrecks, ...
as a designated Grade II
listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...
.


Early history

The factory was built between 1919 and 1921 for the match producing firm of Maguire, Paterson and Palmer. The company had been founded in 1898 by J. T. Maguire and his four sons, who had previously worked for the Diamond Match Works in Liverpool. By 1919 J. T. Maguire and two of the sons had died, and another son had retired, leaving only Alexander Maguire to run the company, which then became Maguire, Paterson and Palmer. In 1923 it became part of Bryant and May. The factory was taken over by
Swedish Match Swedish Match AB is a Swedish multinational tobacco company headquartered in Stockholm. It has been owned by the American Philip Morris International since 2022. The company manufactures snus, nicotine pouches, moist snuff, tobacco- and nicotine ...
in 1987, but it closed on 21 December 1994. Since 1999 work has been carried out on the former factory buildings by the developers
Urban Splash Urban Splash is a UK-based Real estate development, property development business. It was founded in 1993 by chairman Tom Bloxham and creative director Jonathan Falkingham. Headquartered in Castlefield, Manchester, it also has regional bases in ...
with the architects ShedKM. The factory has been transformed into offices, with service pods added to the rear, and a new mezzanine floor has been inserted. The former service wing at the rear has been converted into offices and workshops, and the Neo-Georgian block between the factory and Speke Road has been demolished.


Architecture

The factory was designed by Mewès and
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in conjunction with the structural engineer Sven Bylander. The factory range was constructed of reinforced flat-slab concrete; it was the first building in the United Kingdom to use this technique. The service wing is in brick. The former factory wing is in two storeys, it has a front of thirty-five
bays A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a ''gulf'', ''sea'', ''sound'', or ''bight''. A ''cove'' is a small, ci ...
, and is three bays deep. It is constructed as a concrete frame on a brick
plinth A pedestal or plinth is a support at the bottom of a statue, vase, column, or certain altars. Smaller pedestals, especially if round in shape, may be called socles. In civil engineering, it is also called ''basement''. The minimum height o ...
, the frame being filled with glass. The columns are decorated with Lancashire roses, and between the storeys is a band of coloured tiles. On the roof is a cylindrical water tower with a pointed top. On the rear of the range are six silver-coloured corrugated cylindrical service pods with slot windows. The former service range extends for sixteen bays and is three bays deep, with an extension of thirteen bays, one bay deep. Inside the former factory are two arcades of circular columns with mushroom-shaped heads and square-shaped bearing pads. There are concrete staircases in the middle of the building and at the ends.


Appraisal

The former factory was designated as a Grade II listed historic building on 17 February 1998. Grade II is the lowest of the three grades of listing, and includes buildings that "are nationally important and of special interest".


See also

*
Grade II listed buildings in Liverpool-L19 Liverpool is a city and port in Merseyside, England, which contains many listed buildings. A listed building is a structure designated by English Heritage of being of architectural and/or of historical importance and, as such, is included in t ...


Notes and references

Notes Citations {{coord, 53.3505, -2.8861, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Grade II listed buildings in Merseyside Buildings and structures completed in 1921