Building record 1160/393/1 - Speedwell Works, Oliver Street

John Lobb & Co. Ltd. Shoe Factory (Speedwell Works). Also known as Westminster Works. A three storey boot and shoe factory built on the south side of Oliver Street. This `T' plan factory is built of brick with a slate-covered hipped roof. Ordnance Survey and other mapping suggests that it was built c.1880.

{1} The site is located away from the areas more generally associated with shoe factories and just outside the Kingsley Park Conservation Area. The factory is brick built with timber windows, rather than the usual 'Crittall' variety, possibly turn of the century construction date. An independent producer of high quality shoes. (NB The interior was not inspected at this time.)

{3} Boot and shoe factory. C.1895 with minor later additions and alterations. Orange-red brick with some dark and blue brick dressings and with slate roofs with end stacks. T-plan. There is a 3-storey, 11-x-4-window range fronting onto Oliver Street with a 6-x-3-window range extending to its rear. Both ranges are contemporary and constructed in the same brick. A 2-storey range, probably a warehouse, projecting south-eastwards from the rear of the rear range also appears to be original. A single-storey top-lit range linking this with the front range appears to be secondary, though present by 1899. The front to Oliver Street has top-opening windows with segmental arches to ground and 1st floors and flat lintels to top floor. Goods entrance to centre left and doorway to far left of ground floor and taking-in door to right of 2nd floor. Similar windows to left side. Many large windows to rear wing to maximise the availability of light for the workshops. There are extra tall windows on the rear gable with their heads placed above the level of the upper floors with the light directed by interior timber ‘hoppers’ downwards. A blocked doorway on a rear corner retains an iron crane.
INTERIOR. The little altered interior, still used for the boot and shoe manufacture for which the factory was built, retains the traditional layout. This includes the clicking room with benches at the windows, the making and finishing rooms, the last stores, the sales and management suite and an internal hoist from the making rooms to top floor stores.

{4} This is a significant survival of a smaller factory still producing high quality gentlemen’s shoes by traditional processes. It was virtually all built at the same time and retains its internal plan and many traditional fixtures and fittings.

{7} First used by Singlehurst & Gulliver and then from 1929 by Edward Green. It has been the factory of John Lobb & Co since 1993. The interior had lineshafting until at least the 1980s and retains many original fixtures and fittings.

<1> ELLISON M., 1998, SMR Report Form, (unchecked) (SMR Report Form). SNN49125.

<2> ELLISON M., 1998, Photographs from Site Visit, (unchecked) (Photographs). SNN52285.

<3> DCMS, 2004, Listing Schedule, (checked) (Schedule). SNN104967.

<4> DCMS, 2004, Listing Schedule, (checked) (Schedule). SNN104967.

<5> ENGLISH HERITAGE, 2000, Northamptonshire Boot and Shoe Survey, Site 170 (unchecked) (Catalogue). SNN105075.

<6> Undated, Westminster Works (formerly Speedwell Works), Oliver Street, Northampton, BF103529 (Archive). SNN113719.

<7> Perkins, P, Whittaker, R and Denton, A, 2022, A Guide to the Industrial Heritage of Northamptonshire, p. 65/ Site 283 (Book). SNN113793.

Record last edited

Feb 17 2025 7:20PM