Howden's Works: 191-3 Scotland Street
Date 19 September 2012
Event ID 928478
Category Management
Type Site Management
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/928478
1. 2 ashlar square-section gatepiers. Lodge, 1897, advanced from main W elevation, 2-storey ashlar. Ground floor 2 doors, 3 windows. 1st floor 2 windows, cornice, tall wallhead stack. Flat roof.
2. 1897 2-storey 9-bay offices ashlar, banded on ground floor. Central doorway. Recessed windows with roll moulded arrises and wooden frames. Cornice, parapet and 2 wallhead stacks. Mansard roof, red tiles and large windows, added 1907 for drawing office. Cast-iron railings.
3. Advanced lodge, circa 1902, 2-storey (originally similar to E lodge) with later top floor above cornice. Ashlar. Ground floor 1 door and 1 window. 3 1st and 2nd floor windows. 2 ashlar square-section gatepiers.
4. 2-storey 3-bay ashlar workmen's mess-room; cornice and parapet, 1908.
5. Machine shop, 1908, pressed brick, with 2 gables to the street. Smaller gable has 6 window ground floor men's dining room. 1st floor 5 modern windows. String course and arch enclose blank oculus. Simple gable topped by small pediment.
6. Larger gable to W has original wide doorway, string courses, arch projecting on corbels, blank oculus, small apex pediment. Blank west wall, ordinary brick. Original corrugated roof has been renewed. Behind offices, excluding 2-storey office addition: Bays 2-7: 1897 machine and onstructing shop, 6 East-West bays, each 30' tall with 28' spans. Steel frame with
cast-iron crane girder brackets. Brick walls with shafting boxes. Roof of steel rings and tie-bar couples. Corrugated roof renewed. Bays 8-10; 1898 sheet iron workers shop, extended probably in 1920s. 1898 Smithy, brick walls and steel tie roof. Bays 11-13, circa 1902, 3 N-S fitting machine shops steel framed and cast-iron brackets, slightly arched steel trusses.
1 bay contains new office. Bay 14: 1908, tall 45' span fitting shop, steel framed, with travelling crane. Steel truss roof. South walls of bays 10-14, brick with tall arched gable for bay 14. All now harled.
Howden's Works from 1898 to the present. Howden's "Forced Draught" system patented 1882 achieved a great fuel efficiency, and was fitted to the Mauritania, the Lusitania and other ships. To concentrate on marine auxiliary equipment, Howden needed the smaller bays erected here. Land
work was carried out after 1902, including in 1914 the largest turbine generator in the UK. The much larger fitting shop was added for these in 1908. A good example of buildings responding to function. The large shops to the west added 1954 and 1964, are not listed, nor is the modern addition
over W. gate, or the 2-storey office behind main office. (Historic Scotland)
