Building record 1160/0/285 - St James' Works, Vicarage Road, Northampton

A large, single-storey boot and shoe factory on the north side of Vicarage Road. This brick built, rectangular-plan factory has north-lit roofs covered in slate. It was built in 1900 for A E Marlow. Extended in 1916.

{1} This large single-storey, north-lit boot and shoe factory is built on the north side of Vicarage Road. It was built on a greenfield site in 1900 for the firm of A.E. Marlow (not to be confused with the much older firm of Joseph Marlow, established in 1866). The firm manufactured men’s fine welted shoes under the ‘Faultless’, ‘Scrimshaw’, ‘Oceanic’, ‘Saxonia’ and ‘A.E.M.’ brands until at least the late-1920s (SLN; LT).
The 1900 factory is defined by the three gables of the south front, and is six north-lit bays deep. The front elevation has a restrained degree of Arts-and-Crafts-style detail, concentrated on the three roughcast and barge-boarded gables. The two outer gables contain segmental-headed windows with rubbed red brick heads and jambs, and moulded stone sills. The central gable surmounts a large works entrance with a rusticated semicircular head, above which there is a cartouche with the legend ‘St JAME’S [sic] | WORKS | A·D·1900’, flanked by swags and drops. A further legend was placed on the broad rendered frieze that extends along the whole length of the front. Although most of the lettering has been removed the words ‘… BOOT AND SHOE … MANUFACTURER St JAMES WORKS·’ can still be made out. To the left of the central gable an original office entrance has bull-nosed brick jambs and a triangular stone pediment extending into this band. A single stack to the right of the door shows that part of this space was heated. One original ground-floor window has a segmental brick head and a moulded stone sill; other windows are insertions, including, presumably, two low dormers above the office area.
On the west return the second bay incorporates a loading doorway with bull-nosed blue brick jambs. This appears to be original although the original loading platform, with a stone sill, which occupied the bottom quarter of the doorway has been removed to form a full-height doorway. A cobbled road surface extends along this side of the factory and cast iron bumpers are incorporated into the garden wall of the adjacent house.
The ‘two large extensions’ referred to in the 1916 advertisement for Marlow’s are probably accounted for by an eastwards extension along Vicarage Road, which was itself extended to the rear shortly afterwards. On the Vicarage Road front the new work is identified by a variation in brick colour; on the east return the phasing may be indicated by the transition from exposed to painted brick, between the fifth and sixth bays from the south. The east elevation was originally blind apart from vents in the gable ends. A small, now-demolished outbuilding (perhaps washrooms) led off from the factory floor. At the north end of the elevation is a single stack, probably the exhaust for a gas engine. The engine room/power house appears to be in the three end bays which only extend part way across the building.
What little was visible of the interior, through two large inserted doors in the Vicarage Road elevation, shows that the roof has timber trusses with cast iron columns. The front range retains its original slates, but elsewhere concrete tiles have been substituted.

<1> ENGLISH HERITAGE, 2000, Northamptonshire Boot and Shoe Survey, Northampton Site 158 (Catalogue). SNN105075.

<2> Undated, St James' Works, Vicarage Road, Northampton, BF103520 (Archive). SNN113701.

Record last edited

Feb 17 2025 6:57PM