Building record 1160/67/1 - 20-26 St. Michael's Road

Known as the 'Unicorn Works' in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Formerly 22-26 St Michael's Road. A three-storey boot and shoe factory built on the south side of St Michaels Road. This factory has a `U' shaped plan and is built of red brick with a pitched roof covered in Welsh slate. Ordnance Survey and other mapping suggest that it was built c.1890.

{1} MFG leather factory in St Michael's Road; ?C19th three storey red brick building.

{2} Double boot and shoe factory, now other commercial uses. C. 1890. Red brick with blue brick plinth and stone lintels and sills. Slate roof. 3 Storeys and basement. Plan of a pair of ‘semi-detached’ factories with central fire wall projecting above the roof line. 3-storey wings to rear projecting back from gable ends and various infill extensions. Front to St. Michael’s Road has a 10-window range at first floor of wooden mullion and transom windows with small panes, the window to far left now a taking-in door. Similar windows above and below with taking-in doors with cranes to far left and right on second floor and entrance doors on ground floor. Further entrance door to centre left. Basement windows have cast-iron frames. Prominent eaves, coped gables including the central wall above the roof line and gable end truncated stacks on the front roof slope. Gable ends are blank and rear has various doors and casements, some large.
2 firms of shoe manufacturers are noted as being here in 1896, Beale and Co. at No.24 and Wheeler, Hull and Co. and Nos. 20 and 22. This together with the mirror-image front and central dividing wall strongly suggest the initial construction as a double factory. The site is named as the Unicorn Works in 1899, 1905 and 1912, and in 1916 Beale and Co. are noted as being at the Unicorn Boot Works, so it may have been unified by then. In 1928 the buildings were vacant and by 1937 were a printers and a woollen warehouse, no doubt reflecting the beginning of the decline in the industry from the 1920’s onwards.

{3} 10-bay boot and shoe factory of three storeys built shortly before 1890.

{10} There are entrances, wall cranes and taking-in doors at each end of the building, suggesting it was designed as two separate factory units. The 1888 Goad insurance plan shows it as 'W Martin boot and shoe factory'. James Branch's Bective shoe factory was also here in the late 1880s before moving to a purpose-built factory in Artizan Road.

<1> Starmer G.H., 1967, CBA Record Cards: Industrial Archaeology in Northamptonshire, (checked) (Recording Form (Not SMR)). SNN565.

<1> ENGLISH HERITAGE, 2000, Northamptonshire Boot and Shoe Survey, (part checked) (Catalogue). SNN105075.

<2> Department for Culture Media and Sport, 2004, Amendments of the 7th list of Buildings of Special Architectural Interest - Northampton, Addition of 23/04/2004 (unchecked) (Document). SNN105077.

<3> ENGLISH HERITAGE, 2000, Northamptonshire Boot and Shoe Survey, Site No.46 (part checked) (Catalogue). SNN105075.

<4> Morrison K.A.; Bond A., 2004, Built To Last? The Buildings of The Northamptonshire Boot and Shoe Industry, p.4+14 (unchecked) (Book). SNN104903.

<5> Menuge A., 2000, Technology and Tradition: The English Heritage Survey of The Northamptonshire Boot and Shoe industry, p.106-7 (unchecked) (Paper/s). SNN105805.

<6> Ellison, M., 1999, 14-20 St Michael's Road, Northampton, (unchecked) (Photographs). SNN108611.

<7> Langley Site Engineering, 1999, Building Survey - 14-20 St. Michael's Road, Northampton, (unchecked) (Plan). SNN108612.

<8> N.C.H.A. Architects, 1999, Elevations and Proposed Plans - 14-20 St. Michael's Road, Northampton, (unchecked) (Plan). SNN108613.

<9> Historic England, Undated, 20-26 St. Michael's Road (formerly Union Works), Northampton, BF103480 (Archive). SNN115586.

<10> Perkins, P, Whittaker, R and Denton, A, 2022, A Guide to the Industrial Heritage of Northamptonshire, p. 60-1/ Site 263 (Book). SNN113793.

Record last edited

Jan 23 2025 12:43PM