Adams Building, Nottingham
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The Adams Building, formerly the Adams and Page warehouse on Stoney Street, is the largest building in the
Lace Market The Lace Market is a historic quarter-mile square area in the centre of Nottingham, England. It was once the centre of the world's lace industry and was an area of salesrooms and warehouses for storing, displaying and selling the lace. It is no ...
district of the city of
Nottingham Nottingham ( , East Midlands English, locally ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located south-east of Sheffield and nor ...
in England. Now Grade II*- listed by
Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked with prot ...
, the Adams Building was formerly a lace showroom and warehouse. Since 1999, it has formed part of the City campus of what is now
Nottingham College Nottingham College is one of the largest further education and higher education colleges in the United Kingdom. Based in the city of Nottingham in England, it provides education and training from pre-entry through to university-degree level at i ...
.


Background

Opened on 10 July 1855, the building is named after its original owner
Thomas Adams Thomas Adams may refer to: Politicians *Thomas Adams (MP), Member of Parliament for Bedford *Sir Thomas Adams, 1st Baronet (1586–1667/68), Lord Mayor of London * Thomas Adams (politician) (1730–1788), Virginia delegate to the Continental Congr ...
(1807–1873), a Victorian industrialist with strong
Quaker Quakers are people who belong to the Religious Society of Friends, a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations. Members refer to each other as Friends after in the Bible, and originally, others referred to them as Quakers ...
views and a deep social conscience. He selected the Nottingham architect
Thomas Chambers Hine Thomas Chambers Hine (31 May 1813 – 6 February 1899) was an architect based in Nottingham. Background He was born in Covent Garden into a prosperous middle-class family, the eldest son of Jonathan Hine (1780–1862), a hosiery manufacturer and ...
and between them, they created a building which, for a variety of social and architectural reasons, is quite unique.


Phase I

As it now exists, the Adams Building is the product of several distinct phases of construction from 1854 to around 1874. The earliest phase is the building facing Stoney Street, with its elaborate symmetrical frontage behind a railed courtyard. It was designed as a lace showroom and warehouse, in which lace products brought in from outlying factories were finished off and then sold. The main display area seems to have been a two-storey lightwell in the centre of the building (now closed up), originally lit by decorative gas lamps; approached by a grand staircase. Secondary areas were used for mending and packing. The main power-source was a steam engine to the rear, with hydraulic engines for the hoists and packing machines. Maximum lighting was provided for the
lace Lace is a delicate fabric made of yarn or thread in an open weblike pattern, made by machine or by hand. Generally, lace is split into two main categories, needlelace and bobbin lace, although there are other types of lace, such as knitted o ...
repair and finishing shops. Hine provided 'lace lofts' at roof level whose walls were almost entirely built from glass. These lace lofts were innovative in their time and quickly became a characteristic of Nottingham's then-thriving lace manufacturing industry. This architectural motif can still be seen (along with more modern interpretations) throughout the Lace Market today. As a committed philanthropist, Thomas Adams was determined to provide humane conditions and good facilities for his workforce. A large area of the basement (now Floor B) was designed as a chapel (with a company chaplain and vestry) where more than 500 workers and managers would take part in a service before starting work. Indoor toilets, washing facilities and tea rooms were provided for staff, and there are records of a sick fund, savings bank and book club. Heating was provided by a mixture of
coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other Chemical element, elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal i ...
and patent warm-air flues brought through ducts from a
heat exchanger A heat exchanger is a system used to transfer heat between a source and a working fluid. Heat exchangers are used in both cooling and heating processes. The fluids may be separated by a solid wall to prevent mixing or they may be in direct contac ...
at the boiler. These amenities were at the forefront of mid-Victorian factory design, and the Adams factory was regarded as a model example of its kind by contemporary factory inspectors.


The architecture of Phase I

TC Hine adopted a distinctly '
Anglo-Italian Italians in the United Kingdom, also known as Italian Brits () are citizens and/or residents of the United Kingdom who are fully or partially of Italian descent, whose ancestors were Italians who emigrated to the United Kingdom during the It ...
' style for the principal elevations. In places, this appears redolent of the 15th century Palazzo Ricardi in
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, Italy. His chosen materials were plain brick, moulded brick and local Derbyshire and Ancaster stone (often exchanged for rendering at high levels for economy). By giving a high priority to the appearance of the elevations, Hine had to adjust the level of some of the internal floors and allow some floors to cut across windows, so as not to spoil the overall intended effect. At the time, the size and grandeur of the building was in contrast with the other plainer industrial buildings in the vicinity. A local newspaper described it as the 'finest erection in the Midlands!'


Later phases

The building was later extended along St Mary's Gate to the rear, and finally, along Warser Gate. In the process, this incorporated a building at the end of King's Place. Although externally, this appears to be of minor interest, this is a rare survivor of a tenement lace or hosiery factory, dating from the early 19th century, and was used at various times in its early life as a Roman Catholic chapel. These later blocks were much more plain and functional, and it is possible that they were built speculatively, perhaps for rent as tenement lace factories. Extra steam engines were installed to serve these new blocks, and massive cast-iron doors fitted at intersecting walls to prevent the spread of fire. (Some of these fireproofing doors remain ''in-situ'', and have become part of the fabric of the restored building). A new heating and ventilation system was installed in the later blocks, using fresh air from wall ventilators drawn over hot steam pipes. Hine continued to experiment structurally, the timber floor beams of the original building giving way progressively to cast-iron beams, rivetted wrought-iron girders, rolled-iron beams and (possibly) early mild-steel beams, as each of these materials became available. As completed, the complex had of floor space over 6 floors, 8 principal staircases and 3 minor staircases. Over the intervening years many alterations were made, including the addition of new goods lifts, the replacement of the original boiler chimney, the removal and insertion of staircases, and internal conversions. On St Mary's Gate, the decorative turret and clock tower above the main entrance stairwell was replaced by a lift motor room crudely built in brick. During
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, concrete bomb shelters were built in the Stoney Street courtyard, obscuring the basement walls, and the occupation of the ground floor by the RAF for parachute storage caused serious damage to the floor and chapel below. The Adams Company closed the factory in 1950, and the building was sub-divided for use by small businesses.


Restoration and reuse

In the 1980s and early 90s, the Adams Building was in a serious state of decline, due to rising repair costs, outdated standards of workspace, and under-occupation. Many floors were structurally unsound, having sagged or failed under the weight of heavy machinery. In 1996, the building was acquired by the Lace Market Heritage Trust, and after being considered and rejected as the new headquarters of
English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, a battlefield, medieval castles, Roman forts, historic industrial sites, Lis ...
, was restored and converted by
New College Nottingham Nottingham College is one of the largest further education and higher education colleges in the United Kingdom. Based in the city of Nottingham in England, it provides education and training from pre-entry through to university-degree level at i ...
. The £16.5 million restoration of the Adams Building helped attract further revitalisation of the
Lace Market The Lace Market is a historic quarter-mile square area in the centre of Nottingham, England. It was once the centre of the world's lace industry and was an area of salesrooms and warehouses for storing, displaying and selling the lace. It is no ...
district as a whole. The project was assisted by grant aid from the
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and
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, and was a pilot scheme for the Government's
Private Finance Initiative The private finance initiative (PFI) was a United Kingdom government procurement policy aimed at creating "public–private partnerships" (PPPs) where private firms are contracted to complete and manage public projects. Initially launched in 1992 ...
.
CPMG Architects CPMG Architects is an architectural practice in Nottingham. History The practice was established in 1997 from the merger of two local companies, ''Crampin Pring'', and ''James McArtney''. With Jack Gant, the initials of the four architects ...
designed the refurbishment. The Adams Building was officially reopened by Charles, Prince of Wales on 5 February 1999. In 2002 New College Nottingham was awarded the
Queen's Anniversary Prize The Queen Elizabeth Prizes for Education (formerly Queen's Anniversary Prizes) are a biennially awarded series of prizes awarded to universities and colleges in the further and higher education sectors within the United Kingdom. Uniquely it forms ...
for the renovation of the building.The Guardian
"Winners of the Queen's Anniversary Prizes"
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See also

*
Grade II* listed buildings in Nottinghamshire There are over 20,000 Grade II* listed buildings in England. This page is a list of these buildings in the county of Nottinghamshire, by district. Ashfield Bassetlaw Broxtowe ...
*
Listed buildings in Nottingham (Bridge ward) Bridge ward is an Wards of the United Kingdom, electoral ward in the city of Nottingham, England. The ward contains over 270 Listed building#England and Wales, listed buildings that are recorded in the National Heritage List for England. Of thes ...


References


Further reading

*Brand, Ken (2003). Thomas Chambers Hine: architect of Victorian Nottingham. Nottingham:
Nottingham Civic Society } The Nottingham Civic Society is a civic society based in the city of Nottingham, England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it ...
. . *Harwood, Elain (2008). Nottingham (Pevsner Architecture Guide). New Haven and London:
Yale University Press Yale University Press is the university press of Yale University. It was founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day and Clarence Day, grandsons of Benjamin Day, and became a department of Yale University in 1961, but it remains financially and ope ...
. .


External links


Official website of Nottingham CollegeDetailed historical record of the Adams Building, NottinghamSee the Adams Building on Google Street ViewGLO Foundation
{{coord, 52, 57, 08, N, 1, 8, 36, W, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title 1855 establishments in England Commercial buildings completed in 1874 Buildings and structures in Nottingham Grade II* listed buildings in Nottinghamshire Warehouses in England Grade II* listed commercial buildings Thomas Chambers Hine buildings