Building record 7198/135/1 - Factory Workshop, off Havelock Street

A three storey leather works, specialising in leather laces, on the east side of an alleyway leading from Havelock Street. The works is built of brick with a slate covered roof. Ordnance Survey maps and other evidence, suggest that it was built circa.1880

{1} Industrial building, Havelock Street. Small three storey factory on alley way leading off Havelock Street. Film 9, photo 22.

{2} Boot and shoe factory/workshop, now other commercial uses. C.1860, in two phases. Red brick with blue brick floor bands and slate roof. L-plan. First phase range projecting to left to rear. 3 storeys. Front to alley leading south off Havelock Street has a 4-window range of casements under brick segmental arches to first and second floors and a taking-in door to right end. Door and casement on ground floor. The other sides have similar casements and the gable ends are blank.

{3} This three-storey former factory is set back behind the terraced houses on the south side of Havelock Street, at the rear of a common yard belonging to Nos. 4 and 6 Havelock Street.
The factory consists of two ranges, forming an ‘L’ or ‘V’ on plan. The narrower south range, which is gabled to the east, is the earlier of the two. The broader west range abuts it at a straight joint and is gabled to the north. Both were present by 1885, and stylistic indications suggest a date for the addition no later than the 1870s, so that the first phase may be as early as the 1850s or 1860s.
The south range of the factory was originally a rectangular-plan building of three storeys. The ground floor of its south elevation is blind, the first floor is lit by two smaller windows towards the east end, and the second floor has three large timber casement window frames beneath shallow segmental heads. The north elevation was not seen clearly at the time of survey but appears to be blind but for an entrance towards the centre which is indicated by a path, leading to the houses, shown on the 1885 OS map. The roof appears to retain its original covering of slate. The small number of windows suggest that this building may have been more warehouse than factory.
The later west range is broader, but otherwise similar in height and appearance, apart from paired brick bands at first- and second-floor height. It does not appear to have had a separate entrance (the current entrance from the alley is inserted in a window position), although the east elevation was only partially visible at the time of survey. Like the south range the ground floor is poorly lit with a blind east elevation and two (originally three) small windows in the west elevation which would have received little light in the narrow alley. The lack of light may indicate that the ground floor was used as a store. However, this floor appears to be heated by the single stack in the centre of the west elevation, which would be unusual for a store. The large windows in both the east and west elevations of the first and second floors, by contrast, suggest manufacturing use; they are similar to those on the second floor of the south range and to those in the Castle Factory at 20 King Street, Long Buckby (Site 5), built circa 1876.
The loading doorways inserted on the ground and first floor of what was the west gable of the south range may be contemporary with the c.1876 extension. They have blue brick jambs. Owing to the difficulty of matching directory evidence to specific properties in Kettering no early occupants have been identified so far, but during the 20th century the factory was used by a firm of leather lace manufacturers, whose painted sign remains on the north gable of the factory.

Historic England, 4A Havelock Street, Kettering, BF103556 (Archive). SNN115272.

<1> Ballinger J., 1999, Northamptonshire Extensive Urban Survey: Industrial Period, (checked) (Digital archive). SNN4.

<2> DCMS, 2004, Listing Schedule, (checked) (Schedule). SNN104967.

<3> ENGLISH HERITAGE, 2000, Northamptonshire Boot and Shoe Survey, Kettering site 17 (checked) (Catalogue). SNN105075.

<4> Bellamy B, 1993-4, Boot and Shoe factories in Kettering, P53 (Photographs). SNN111256.

Record last edited

Mar 25 2025 10:53AM