SNN110971 - Historic building recording: 54 Dunster Street, Northampton, 2017

In October 2017 a programme of historic building recording was undertaken of the former shoe factory at 54 Dunster Street, Northampton, in advance of the building’s refurbishment and conversion to apartments. The present structure comprises three- and two-storey blocks, constructed of orange-red brick under slate roofs, with a distinctive detailing scheme on the street frontage, executed in blue engineering brick. The street frontage also retains taking-in doors and associated hand crane on the upper floors, typical of smaller 19th-century shoe factories in the town. Based on the available cartographic and historical evidence, 54 Dunster Street was constructed in the early 1890s, presumably for Facer & White, boot manufacturers, who were listed as occupants in 1896. The original building comprised the present three-storey structure occupying the northern half of the site, along with a small block containing WCs on each floor, and an adjacent enclosed yard to the rear. Dating the construction of the rear two-storey extension has been more problematic, as there are conflicts between the cartographic and structural evidence. On balance it seems likely that the extension to the factory was built either for Facer & White or their successors, George Wearing & Co, who had taken over the building by 1906. By 1912, 54 Dunster Street was being used as M Moss & Sons’ leather warehouse, a function which it appears to have retained until the mid-20th century. The only remaining features relating to the building’s original use are those concerned with moving materials between floors, and therefore also relevant to warehousing. In the latter half of the 20th century, 54 Dunster Street was the premises of R.G. Engineering, a precision engineering company working in the aeronautics and automotive industries.