ROSEMOUNT FACTORY

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A large four-storey brick former shirt factory erected in 1904 for A.B. Grant & Son to a design by local architect M.A. Robinson.
The premises are located along the NW side of Rosemount Avenue, at its junction with Rosemount Gardens. They comprise the factory building aligned NE-SW along the street frontage with miscellaneous original and later returns and ancillary buildings to the rear.

1. Factory
Replacement shallow monopitched (Kingspan) roof of profiled insulated metal sheeting; the original roof was apparently of felted timber. It is accessed through the top floor of the rear toilet stack (1a). Low brick blocking parapet to front and sides, and modern metal safety railing along rear. Sign reading "A Stitch in Time" to frontage. The parapet has a painted concrete coping and recessed rectangular brick panels to SE and SW, but is plain to NE. Half-round plastic gutters to rear, and plastic down pipes. The walls are of red brick, except to the rear (NW) which is rendered smooth, unpainted.

The principal elevation faces SE on to Rosemount Avenue and is 17 openings wide. It is of symmetrical composition save for the GF doorways. Slightly advanced basal course with chamfered brick coping. A painted chamfered concrete cill course runs across the façade at GF window level. More elaborate moulded concrete cill courses run across the facade between GF/FF and SF/TF. Both these cill courses also form the cornices of entablatures underlined by a row of moulded brick specials and the friezes of which have regularly-spaced circular and square brick panels and extended keystones above the windows below. There is also a moulded concrete eaves cornice along the bottom of the roof parapet (but no frieze). Up-facing spotlights are affixed to the FF cill course, and two satellite dishes.
All the GF openings have semicircular brick heads with slightly advanced moulded brick architraves and painted concrete keystones. A moulded brick string course also runs across the facade at arch spring level. Of the 17 GF openings, five are doorways, all with replacement timber doors with glazed overlights. The windows are replacement doubled-glazed uPVC casements (3x1-over-2x2) with security grilles over.
All the upper floor openings also contain modern uPVC casement windows (but no metal grilles). Those to FF and SF are set in recesses with three-centred arched heads embellished with painted concrete keystones and moulded brick stop-ended hood moulds. The actual window heads to FF are semicircular whereas those to SF are three-centred. Moreover, whereas the FF windows share a common cill, the SF ones have individual painted concrete cills with a moulded brick string course under each cill; it reads as two-storey arcading. The TF windows are also set in three-centred recesses with similarly detailed hood moulds (but no keystones). The windows themselves also have three-centred heads.
Each floor of the SW gable is delineated by a painted concrete cill course. Those between GF/FF and SF/TF are detailed as the façade (i.e. moulded and with entablature under), whereas that between FF/SF is a plan common cill underlined with a moulded brick string course. The eaves and parapet are detailed as the frontage.
The GF is two openings wide. At left is a wide three-centred archway with advanced mounded brick architrave and raised concrete keystone; it is now infilled with brick. At right is a window detailed as the façade. Its chamfered concrete cill is a continuation of the one along the frontage, as is the string course which runs the full width of the gable at arch spring level.
The upper floors are three openings wide. Each opening contains a semicircular-headed 3x1-over-2x2 uPVC window, and all with mounded brick architraves, stop-ended hood moulds and string courses at arch spring level. In addition, there are keystones to the SF window heads.
The NW (rear) elevation is of smooth cement-rendered brick throughout. It is abutted by a double-pile, two-storey later extension (3) at left, a five-storey toilet stack (1a) at middle, and a four-storey stairwell (1b) towards its right-hand (SW) end. The latter two returns are original and between them is a one-storey link to an ancillary building (2). All the windows to the exposed parts of this elevation have flat or shallow- segmental, slightly-advanced rendered heads, concrete cills and 2x3-paned uPVC windows.
The toilet stack (1a) is a five-storey, three-openings wide return, the top of which extends above the eaves and gives access to the roof of the factory. The roof of this return is of felted timber. Its walls are cement-rendered and contain flat-headed openings. Doors and later abutting additions to GF and windows with advanced rendered heads, concrete cills and 2x2 uPVC windows to upper floors on all three exposed elevations. There is a blank band of cement render across the top floor of its NW elevation (possibly for a painted sign originally)
The stairwell (1b) is four storeys high and a single ope wide. Its monopitched metal-clad roof is a continuation of that on the main factory, with a steel railing around. Smooth cement-rendered walls. Abutted at NE and NW by ancillary building (2). Door to GF (with 2x2 overlight) and 2x2 uPVC windows to upper floors on NW and SW sides (all with shallow segmental rendered heads and concrete cills).
The NE gable is abutted by a two-storey house which is the end of a terrace of five such houses formerly associated with the factory (HB01/23/001B-G). A chimney rises up the left-hand side of the gable from the house. No openings to this elevation.

2. Ancillary building
Between returns 1a and 1b is a disused one-storey link building (2a) with pitched corrugated metal roof and cement-rendered walls.
It connects with a two-storey high building (2b) with double-hipped natural slate roof, half-round plastic gutters, and cement-rendered brick walls. Mostly modern window and door insertions to GF, but original window openings to FF (shallow segment heads, concrete cills and 1-over-1 uPVC windows). A brick chimney (2c) rises from the W corner of this building.
The SW elevation is abutted by a double-pile, single-storey building (2d) with pitched and hipped natural slate and corrugated-asbestos roofs, partly rendered brick walls with miscellaneous flat-headed openings (some probably original, others later).

3. Modern extension
Although this extension has the semblance of a refurbished 19th century engine house, it is, in fact, of very recent construction (early 2000s). Pitched natural slate roofs (with skylights), doorways to GF and semicircular-headed window openings to upper floors (with cement-rendered architraves and concrete cills). Shallow pitch-roofed, cement-rendered, single-storey entrance abuts middle of NW elevation.

Setting
Directly opposite the factory is a bowling green, beside which is a car park belonging to Brooke Park Leisure Centre; mature trees align the street frontage to the latter. At the rear of the buildings is a tarmaced car park. The premises are otherwise surrounded by houses, including a red-brick terrace built at the same time as the factory and attached to the NW end.

Historical information

Rosemount Factory was erected for A.B. Grant & Sons, shirt and collar manufacturers, in 1904. It was designed by Matthew Alexander Robinson and built by H. Laverty & Son, Belfast.
Robinson served his apprenticeship with Young & McKenzie of Belfast, after which he became an assistant to John Lanyon. He established his own practice in Derry in 1898 and was appointed City Surveyor in 1909.
Rosemount Factory is first shown on the 1904 OS map. It is captioned 'Shirt Factory' and is depicted with a large rear extension and a terrace of five houses on its NE gable. It is also cited in the 1905 Valuation Revision Book as "shirt factory", with a rateable valuation of £350 (this was reduced on appeal to £275 in 1907).
There are no changes to the valuation records save for an increase in valuation to £316 in 1930. However, the 1932 ad 1948 OS maps shown the same overall footprint as the 1904 edition; the latter map also captions the site as "Factory (Shirt & Collar)".
Messrs Grant were still in operation in 1950, but the factory was subsequently taken over by Kollerton Ltd. Sometime after the cessation of shirt production, the factory was refurbished by Rosemount Developments (Derry) Ltd. It is now in the process of being let out to a variety of small businesses.
In 2013, as part of Derry's Lumiere Festival, the artist Tim Etchell erected a 23m long by 2m high sign reading "A Stitch in Time" along the roof frontage.

References - Primary Sources:
1. PRONI OS/10/5/14/6/1. OS 1:2500 town map, Co Londonderry sheet 14-06 (1904).
2. PRONI VAL/12/B/33/2A. Valuation revision books 1898-1910, p.111.
3. PRONI VAL/12/B/33/2E. Valuation revision books 1910-31, p.204.
4. PRONI OS/10/5/14/6/2. OS 1:2500 town map, Co Londonderry sheet 14-06 (1932).
5. PRONI OS/10/5/14/6/4. OS 1:2500 town map, Co Londonderry sheet 14-06 (1948).
6. Belfast and Ulster Street Directory, 1950, p.1556.

References - Secondary Sources:
1. D. Calley, City of Derry - An Historical Gazetteer of the Buildings of Londonderry, p.340 (Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 2013).
2. W.S. Ferguson, A.J. Rowan & J.J. Tracey, Historic Buildings in the City of Derry, p.47 (Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1970).
3. Irish Architectural Archive Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720-1940, .

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
H-. Alterations detracting from building
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

T. Historic Importance
V. Authorship
X. Local Interest
R. Age
S. Authenticity

Evaluation

This impressive factory building was built in 1904 to designs by M A Robinson, former assistant to John Lanyon. It is of architectural interest because of its Classical elements executed in brick (entablatures along its frontage and gable) and despite the replacement roof and uPVC windows, it retains its well-proportioned façade with regular fenestration and lavish embellishment in the form of brick specials and painted concrete detailing. The plan form is typical of shirt factories, with spacious open-plan floors created by metal beam and cast-iron column construction, also of structural interest. A semblance of the original open plan can still be observed on its top two floors; the rest are subdivided for small businesses.
Historically, the Rosemount Factory is entirely authentic as it retains all its original brick wall fabric and it is a fine example of 'second generation' shirt factories; it bears a striking resemblence to Lanyon's Jennymount Mill (HB26/47/004B), built 1891. It is also of social and economic importance in giving employment to many generations of women and being one of a number of shirt factories which made Londonderry the 'shirt capital of the world' in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Surrounded for the most part by small scale housing, the large bowling green opposite and mature trees nearby help to preserve the factory's majestic presence on Rosemount Avenue.