Mersey Match Factory on:
[Wikipedia]
[Google]
[Amazon]
The Mersey Match Factory, later known as The Matchworks, is a former match factory on Speke Road,
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. Historically in Lancashire, it is bordered by the suburbs of Grassendale, Allerton, and Speke. It lies on the Eastern banks of the River Mersey.
History
In medieval times, Garston was home to a group of ...
, 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 company created in the mid-19th century specifically to make matches. Their original Bow Quarter, Bryant & May Factory was located in Bow, London, Bow, London. They later opened other match factories in the United Kin ...
. 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, a ...
as a designated Grade II listed building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern I ...
.
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 in 1987, but it closed on 21 December 1994. Since 1999 work has been carried out on the former factory buildings by the developersUrban Splash
Urban Splash was founded in 1993 by Chairman Tom Bloxham MBE and Creative Director Jonathan Falkingham MBE; the company has spent more than two decades working with architects and designers to restore old buildings and create new, sustainable c ...
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 andDavis
Davis may refer to:
Places Antarctica
* Mount Davis (Antarctica)
* Davis Island (Palmer Archipelago)
* Davis Valley, Queen Elizabeth Land
Canada
* Davis, Saskatchewan, an unincorporated community
* Davis Strait, between Nunavut and Green ...
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, circular bay with a na ...
, and is three bays deep. It is constructed as a concrete frame on a brick plinth
A pedestal (from French ''piédestal'', Italian ''piedistallo'' 'foot of a stall') 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 ...
, 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-L19Notes 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