Archaeology Notes

Event ID 704078

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/704078

NS66SW 74 60325 64163

Templeton Business Centre [NAT]

OS (GIS) MasterMap, April 2010.

Carpet factory, 62 Templeton Street, founded on this site in 1857 by James Templeton and son. The oldest part is a cut down cotton mill built c. 1823, now only two storeys high. Subsequent additions were a three-storey 16-bay block at the south end of Templeton Street (built 1868-9), a group of weaving sheds (built 1881-9 at a cost of £6150) and (most spectacularly) W Leiper's Venetian Gothic block, faced in polychrome brick with sandstone dressings. A four-storey and attic, 4- by 11-bay structure, building commenced in 1888 and was almost complete when there was a partial collapse (on 1 November 1889) killing 29 women in the adjacent weaving sheds; the building was eventually completed in 1892. It was designed for the manufacture of spool Axminster carpets and was originally to cost to cost £20,000. Restoration of the collapsed part cost £1200, and of the weaving sheds £1800. The five-storey, 14-bay red brick building facing London Road was added in 1897 at a cost of £10,000.

J R Hume 1974.

The glittering colours of Templeton's Carpet Factory (converted to the Templeton Business Centre by Charles Robertson & Partners, 1980-5), which vividly advertised the 'orient-dyed' wares produced within, can be glimpsed between the trees. William Leiper's Ruskinian front of 1888, its centre-piece quoted from the Venetian Doge's Palace, is only a curtain concealing a functional mill designed by the mill engineers Messrs. J B Harvey. (In fact, the facade, insufficiently tied back, collapsed in 1889. Rebuilding was completed in 1892). The exotic weave is created with crimson Ruabon brick, red terracotta (for the twisted mullions) and red sandstone; by vitreous enamel mosaic in deep blue, gold and white within the tympana; and in the topmost storey, by red and green glazed bricks zigzagged against a bright yellow ground - an essentially High Victorian marriage of medieval forms and modern materials.

Later wings surround a courtyard filled (until 1981) with with low weaving sheds. Clockwise from the left of Leiper's facade: facing London Road, an L-shaped wing by George Boswell (all the 1920's and 1930's ranges are by him); a plain 1897 wing corner block, banded with windows and concrete and with an eye-catching brick corner tower, 1934; facing Templeton Street, a quieter range of 1927; then a gap before a maverick wing, an automated warehouse by Munro and partners, 1963, facing the Green; and Boswell's last wing, 1936, with its coloured diapering and curved side windows, taking up the themes of Leiper's facade.

On the S side of Templeton Street, the factory's former Social Club (no. 35), late 1920's and probably also by Boswell. Classical in shiny red brick.

E Williamson, A Riches and M Higgs 1990.

Conversion to business centre involved cleaning and repair of facades, restoration of timber windows, insertion of new windows and cladding to one facade, and creation of new entrance. Job architect: James Anderson. Winner of the supreme award in the Regeneration of Scotland Design Awards 1986.

SDA/RIAS 1985, 1986