Building record 1160/253/6 - Horizon House

Horizon House is the former Northampton Gas Light Company building. It was constructed by 1896 and may have been a remodelling of an earlier building. The building is constructed of red brick and is of two storeys. The central door has an engraved stone lintel which reads 'Northampton Gas Light Co.'. It has sash windows. It may have been used as the company's main office. The building is currently used by Education and Youth Services Ltd. Two gas holders lay to the north and three to the south, one of which remains. All other remaining late 19th century gaswork buildings have been demolished.

{1} Horizon House, is the former Northampton Gas Light Company building. The building is currently used by Education and Youth Services.

The building is thought to have a date stone of 1896. There is a building shown on the site on the 1887 Ordnance Survey (OS) map, with a slightly different footprint to the present building, suggesting that the gasworks complex may have been remodelled in the late 19th century. On the OS map of 1901, there are a number of buildings attached to the west of Horizon House, and separate ranges to the east, aligned north-south, and in the main yard of the gasworks to the rear there are tracks leading from a branch of the railway crossing the complex. Two gas holders lay to the north, and three to the south, one of which remains. With the exception of Horizon House, all of the other remaining late 19th century gasworks buildings have been demolished. A large, late 20th century building is now attached to the rear of Horizon House.

The former Northampton Gas Light Company building is of two storeys and is constructed of red brick, with decorative brickwork and stone detailing at ground and first-floor levels. The central door on the ground floor has an engraved stone lintel, which reads 'Northampton Gas Light Co.'. It has sash windows; those at first floor level with semi-circular heads.

Horizon House was probably the Northampton Gas Light Company's main office. It has some architectural quality in the detailing to the facade, but is a relatively late example of the building type. The linked extension to the rear is unsympathetic in style, diminshing the quality of the 1896 phase and as the other late 19th century structures associated with the gasworks have been demolished, Horizon House has lost its industrial context.

{2} Tge building is of seven bays with a central doorway, over which, in brick, is the name Northampton Gas Light Company which first opened on this site in 1824. Erected in 1880 with the 6-bay extension on its east side added in 1896. Main office for the company until 1906, when it was replaced by new showroom and offices on Abington Street.

<1> English Heritage, Designation Advice Report, UDS Non-Designation case (Report). SNN113190.

<2> Perkins, P, Whittaker, R and Denton, A, 2022, A Guide to the Industrial Heritage of Northamptonshire, p. 67/ Site 296 (Book). SNN113793.

<3> West Northamptonshire Council, 2024, Local Heritage List, November 2024, p. 28 (Report). SNN116732.

Record last edited

Mar 3 2025 3:48PM