Skillbeck's Warehouse, formerly 46

Upper Thames Street Thames Street, divided into Lower and Upper Thames Street, is a road in the City of London, the historic and financial centre of London. It forms part of the busy A3211 route (prior to being rebuilt as a major thoroughfare in the late 1960s, it ...

, London, was a

drysalter Drysalters were dealers in a range of chemical products, including glue, varnish, dye and colourings. They might supply salt or chemicals for preserving food and sometimes also sold pickles, dried meat or related items. The name ''drysalter'' or '' ...

's warehouse constructed in 1866 by

William Burges William Burges (; 2 December 1827 – 20 April 1881) was an English architect and designer. Among the greatest of the Victorian era, Victorian art-architects, he sought in his work to escape from both nineteenth-century Industrial Revolution, ...

. Burges was commissioned by the Skilbeck Brothers to re-model an existing warehouse; the result was "hugely influential" representing "probably the most successful attempt ever made to unite the requirements of art and mercantile convenience." The Skilbeck Brothers company had been drysalters in the

City of London The City of London, also known as ''the City'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county and Districts of England, local government district with City status in the United Kingdom, city status in England. It is the Old town, his ...

since the mid-seventeenth century. Burges's re-modelling used "twin pointed bays under a single Gothic relieving arch and gable". The use of exposed cast iron was revolutionary with "..good use of ironwork in the window frames (and) the iron girder which stretch(ed)across the front of the building (was) painted, the bolt heads being gilt". The use of modern materials and technologies was combined with Gothic iconography, "the great crane supported by a corbel carved into a bust of a fair Oriental maid, symbolising the clime from which so much of the drysalter's materials are brought, and over a circular window in the gable (a) ship bringing in its precious freight."The Ecclesiologist, 1866 The total cost of the work was £1,413. The Victorian critic

Charles Locke Eastlake Charles Locke Eastlake (11 March 1836 – 20 November 1906) was a British architect and furniture designer. His uncle, Sir Charles Lock Eastlake PRA (born in 1793), was a Keeper of the National Gallery, from 1843 to 1847, and from 1855 its f ...

described the warehouse in his ''A History of the Gothic Revival'' as; "one of the very few instances of the successful adaptation of Gothic for commercial purposes." The warehouse was demolished after 1970.

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References

* * * {{William Burges Former buildings and structures in the City of London Commercial buildings completed in 1866 Warehouses in England Commercial buildings in London William Burges buildings 19th-century architecture in the United Kingdom 1866 establishments in England