The Sirocco Works (Howden Sirocco Engineering works)

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

The Sirocco Works is a large engineering complex situated to the W of Short Strand and S of Bridge End. To the W it is bordered by a railway embankment and to the S by the River Lagan. The complex is comprised of many disparate buildings, built mainly between c.1890s and c.1981. The buildings to the S of the site are generally older and are grouped around some structures which date from c.1910-12, whilst to the N is a large metal clad, hangar-like structure which was erected c.1981. Sandwiched in between these two main groups are the remnants of a pair of buildings dating from c.1890.

The main entrance to the site is now off Short Strand.

To the N is the large hangar-like structure. This is basically rectangular in plan and has a gabled roof. It is constructed of corrugated metal cladding on a brick base. Generally it is featureless apart from several large doorway openings with metal roller shutters.

To the N of this is the original entrance to the complex, which opens off Bridge End. To the immediate W of the (now disused) entrance is a two storey gabled building is brick and stucco which dates from 1900, but which was greatly extended to the W side in 1950 with the addition of a much larger three storey, part gabled, part flat roofed section. This whole building is currently used as an admin. block with what appear to be drawing offices in the 1950 section.

The 1900 portion used to be linked to the S to a much larger building, but this was demolished c.1980 and the S gable is now mainly blank (apart from a door opening at ground level) and rendered. The E façade is rendered also and appears to retain its original flat arch window openings (though now with modern frames). The N gable faces out into Bridge End and is in brick. This gable has what might be described as a slightly Mannerist appearance with several projecting brick courses and ‘pilasters’. To the ground floor are two large segmental headed windows, with three smaller similar headed windows to the first floor. Large date stone to the gable.

The large 1950 modernist extension to the W is in brick and has a very long window (strip glazing) to both ground and first floor on the N façade. The second floor is recessed and sits well back from the N façade. This section (which may be post 1950) is timber clad and largely glazed to N and S. It has a shallow pitched gabled roof. To the S of the 1950 section is a two storey gabled section, which is also attached to the rear of the original 1900 portion. This section is also in brick and to its S façade there are a series of small windows to both floors, with some door openings to the ground floor. Its W gable appears to be blank. The W gable of the 1950 section has several informal (?stairwell) projections, in brick.

To the S of the large hangar-like section the buildings have a complex arrangement. At the N end of this arrangement are two (parallel) gabled rows, in brick, both of which are the last remnants of two very long rows dating from c.1890. The row to the E is three storey and has many segmental headed windows to its E and W facades (with modern frames). The row to the W is slightly shorter (roughly two and a half storeys). It has similar window openings to its E façade. To the W façade of this row a series of modern gabled sections have been added. These are metal clad.

To the S the remnants of the c.1890s blocks link to a sprawling conglomeration of large assembly sheds, much altered and added to over the years. These sheds are also mainly and brick and mainly gabled (with large areas of rooflighting to many). The earliest sections are to the very S, with later portions to the N and E. The later portions are largely metal clad (especially those to the E) and are largely plain. Of the earlier brick sections the most prominent (and arguably, interesting) is that to the very S whose W facing (slightly Mannerist) gable has ‘Sirocco Works’ emblazoned upon it in raised [?metal] letters (in a somewhat late 'Art Noveau' / early ‘Art Deco’ typeface). To the S, this building used to be linked to a slightly lower section which may have contained an engine house. Only the tall, square, brick chimney of this section remains.

To the W of the complex (to the E of the railway embankment) the ground is vacant. Up until c.1980 there were terraced dwellings on this site and the street patterns can still be discerned.

To the E of the original entrance to the N (Bridge End) there is a section of walling with two painted metal plaques, one commemorating employees who fell in the Great War and the other dedicated to J.S. Davidson, a former General Manager of the works who was killed in action in 1916.

Historical information

The Sirocco Works
The complex now known as ‘The Sirocco Works’ is home to an engineering firm which began life in 1881 as ‘Samuel Davidson & Co’. Davidson was born in Belfast in 1846 and grew up in the family home of Turf Lodge, a short distance east of his father’s corn mill in Bridge End. He left school at 15 and shortly after this entered service in a surveyor’s office where he acquired a knowledge of architecture and railway engineering.

In 1864 he received an invitation from a cousin, James Davidson, to travel to India to help him in the running of some tea estates which the Davidson family had acquired an interest in. Upon reaching the sub-continent, he was instructed by an estate manager in the methods of tea plant cultivation and leaf manufacture, but, dissatisfied with the slow and laborious methods involved in withering and drying the leaf over open charcoal fires, Davidson set about devising a new, more efficient process. By 1869 he had developed and patented a cylindrical drying machine and in 1870 obtained a further patent for a tea roller. During the next few years he further refined the tea drying device, constructing and modifying machines with his own hands, but Indian foundries were ill suited to his purposes and in 1877-78 Samuel returned to Belfast to have his latest design constructed by Ritchie, Hart & Co. With this improved dryer he returned to India, travelling around various plantations giving demonstrations and taking orders from estate owners for similar machines.

To fulfil these orders, Davidson travelled back to Belfast and again employed the services of Ritchie, Hart & Co., but in 1881 he founded his own firm to take over the manufacture of the dryers. The new firm was based next to the family mills at Bridge End and consisted initially of a single shed and seven workmen.

Its establishment afforded Samuel more scope to develop his machine, and in particular improving the method of drawing the hot air from the furnace over the trays of tea. Previously this had been achieved by means of the furnace chimney, but the draught was inefficient (even when the stack itself was heightened) and prompted him to turn his mind to introducing a fan into the process. This lead to experiments which not only resulted in the introduction of a fan into the dryer, but ended in 1898 with Davidson’s almost complete redesigning of the said component and the invention of the ‘Sirocco’ Forward Bladed Centrifugal Fan.

The Sirocco Fan proved to be a turning point in the fortunes in the history of Samuel Davidson & Co., for (apart from supplying the company with a new exotic name) its potential was quickly recognised far beyond the realms of tea drying and it was adapted for use in ventilation in mines and ships, as well as dust extraction in factories. By the dawn of the 20th century, therefore, the success of both the tea dryer and the Centrifugal Fan had lead to phenomenal growth in company fortunes and the spread of the Sirocco name throughout the globe. During W.W.I almost all the ships in the Allied and German navies were fitted with Sirocco Fans.

Samuel Davidson was knighted by King George V in 1921, but did not live long to enjoy the honour, dying a few months later. The success of the firm continued unabated however, with new types of fans developed, among them radial bladed, backward bladed, aerofoil axial flow, aerofoil centrifugal and auto-variable axial flow. In the 1950s, the company had also branched into the production of air conditioning equipment, and, by the mid 1960s 1,500 workers were employed in the much expanded Bridge End site with Davidson companies in Australia and South Africa and products manufactured under license in throughout Europe, India, Argentina and New Zealand.

In 1988 the company was acquired by The James Howden Group and renamed ‘Howden Sirocco’.* Ironically, in the same year a redesigned Northern Bank £50 note was issued depicting Samuel Davidson (and is still in circulation). In 1997 Howden Sirocco was sold to Charter Plc.

In Oct 1999 the Bridge End site was sold and the company is currently in the process of acquiring a new base of operations.

The works site
As stated above, Samuel Davidson’s original 1881 workshop in Bridge End consisted of a single storey shed wherein seven men were employed. This building was undoubtedly sited just to the west of the corn mill originally founded by his father, with the Bridge End road to the north, the River Lagan to the south, and terraced housing further to the west. There is an illustration depicting the original works in Edward Maguire’s short history of the company, The Sirocco Story (published c.1963), but it is unclear if this is contemporary or simply conjecture. It shows a long rectangular structure with a curved roof, undoubtedly supported on Belfast trusses.

By the late 1890s, the small shed had been replaced by two lengthy rows, which are shown on the 1902 OS map of the area and depicted in a painting of the site possibly dating from 1898. These gabled rows had sections ranging from three to five storey, but were relatively narrow, only three bays wide. Small sections of both rows still survive and now house the maintenance section and the canteen (see plan 2). In c.1910-12 a new complex of buildings was added to the south of these, where the site borders on the banks of the Lagan. Most of this complex is still standing, though it was much expanded in the 1920s by industrial engineer Alfred W. Brown and again in the 1940s. Its various sections now house the heater assembly shop to the west, and the packing shop (with paint booths) and steel storage area (and welding training & development area), to the east. Conveniently many of these sections have date stones.

With the 1910-12 additions and subsequent extensions, the Sirocco Works had, by the 1960s, assumed an L-shaped plan with the c.1890s rows to the running north to south and the 1910+ extensions to the south of these running east to west. The site was entered from Bridge End to the north, where the entrance gateway lead past the (still extant) admin. block, originally built in 1900 but greatly extended in 1950. At this point the cluster of late 19th century terraces sandwiched between the works and the curving raised railway line to the west were still in place, as was Quin Street to the south, and Richardsons Chemical Manure Works, between the east side of the works and Short Strand. During the 1970s, however, many properties were vacated and in c.1980 the houses to the west and south were totally demolished and the land acquired by the company. The old Richardsons plot was acquired (and cleared) also. With this vacant ground at its disposal, the company preceded to modernise much of the works, demolishing much of the old 1890s rows and constructing the present, massive, hangar-like assembly shed. With the demolition of Quin Street the entrance was shifted from Bridge End to Short Strand.

Bridge End- some historical notes
As its name suggests, Bridge End is literally at the east end of the Queen’s Bridge. Originally, however, the bridge in question was the, roughly one third of a mile long, ‘Long Bridge’- built in the 1680s as a direct link from the growing market town of Belfast to County Down. At this stage and throughout the 18th century, the small village of Ballymacarrett lay at the Down end of the bridge, with Belfast itself confined solely to County Antrim. The area we know today as Bridge End, that is (roughly) the land lying between Short Strand and the Lagan, was then merely a muddy bank, with what is now Short Strand a country strand snaking its way southwards along the bank side.

This began to change in 1776 when Benjamin Edwards, a glass-maker probably originally from Dublin*, was given title to any land he could reclaim on the banks at the east side of Long Bridge. By 1781 he had successfully reclaimed a small plot and upon this had constructed a flint glass-works, ‘equal to any in England’ and producing ‘all kinds of enamel’d, cut, and plain wine glasses…decanters…cruets, salts and goblets’. In 1785, along with Belfast merchant Thomas Greg, he built an iron foundry (initially mainly making equipment for the glass manufactory) just to the north east of the glass-works itself, and a year later a second glass-works was established by John Smylie, right beside that of Edwards, making window glass. The extent of the early development at ‘Bridge End’ is shown on James Williamson’s 1791 map of Belfast, with both Edwards’ and Smylie’s cone ‘glass-houses’ marked (the latter’s incidentally at c.110 feet tall, reputedly the largest in the British Isles), and a substantial area of land stretching to the west of these, either side of Long Bridge, which was at that point in the process of being reclaimed. To the east, beyond the strand, a ‘New’ rope walk had been laid out and to the north of this was the iron foundry. By the 1790s therefore, ‘The end of Long Bridge’ had come into being and with it (it could be argued) the foundations of industrial East Belfast had been laid.

In 1800 Smylie’s works were taken over by Edwards. Edwards himself died in 1812 and the business taken over by his son, Benjamin Jnr, with the foundry leased to Messrs. Chaine & Young. In 1824 his entire concern at what was by called ‘Bridge End’ and which included ‘a large and commodious dwelling house, ware houses, glass house’, the foundry, as well as ‘nine comfortable dwelling houses, 2 storeys high and built by him [Edwards] for the managers and workmen’, was sold. By this stage the ‘intended improvements’ of 1792 had been carried out and the glass-works had been joined on the reclaimed land (to the north) by a salt works and a vitriol works. Further east Ballymacarrett was fast expanding, and by the early 1830s boasted a population of 10,000, 800 houses and four churches.

In 1843 Long Bridge was demolished and the new and much shorter ‘Queen’s Bridge’ erected to designs by Charles Lanyon and John Frazer. By the late 1850s, a corn mill had been built by James Davidson to the immediate west side of the old glass-works (by that stage run by Ross, O’Connor & Co.) and an ‘Oil and bone-mill and chemical manure manufactory’ added by Joseph Richardson to the immediate east side, bordering on Short Strand. There was a second glass works just to the south of this ensemble, established in 1823 and later acquired by William and Thomas McCormick, and, to the west, a pottery. To the north of the road now called Bridge End, there were two chemical works (one the old ‘vitriol works’), the Belfast, Holywood and Bangor Railway terminus to the north of this, and Queen’s Quay to the west, on the Lagan shore. The north side of Bridge End had a street pattern by this stage also and a growing number of houses (mainly occupied by workers at the various manufactories), but the south side’s development was almost wholly industrial.

This began to change in the latter decades of the 19th century when the former village of Ballymacarrett mushroomed to become de facto ‘East Belfast’ and a network of streets was laid out to the west of the mill / glass / manure manufactory cluster at the Short Strand- Bridge End intersection. By the 1890s the nature of this grouping had also witnessed much change with both glass-works having closed (mainly due to increasing excise duties on their products), and their site and buildings, absorbed by now much larger Richardson’s Chemical Manure Co., whilst James Davidson’s ‘Queen’s Bridge Flour Mills’ had been abutted by his son Samuel’s engineering works- ‘The Sirocco Works’, established in 1881 but much grown by the end of the century. By this stage also the railway line had been continued across Bridge End (its embankment passing through the street grid) and, on the river bank to the south of Queen’s Bridge, a large Iron foundry had been established (‘The Union Foundry’).

From c.1900 onwards much of the site south of Bridge End and west of Short Strand was gradually taken over by the expanding Sirocco Works. Davidsons’ flour mills closed in the opening years of the century and between 1910-12 the Sirocco Works was greatly extended to the south (where the land was vacant) and to a lesser extent to the east (where the mill had been). To the east of this, fringing the Short Strand, Richardson’s Chemical Manure Works had expanded as far as Quin Street and south of this there was housing and a ‘Corporation yard and workshop’ (dating from c.1915-20 and whose brick ‘turrets’ still stand). The last recognisable element of the old Georgian glass-works, the large brick-built cone, stood within the grounds of the manure works until it collapsed in October 1937.

By the late 1970s much of the housing between the railway line and the Sirocco Works was abandoned and the by 1980/81 the remaining dwellings were demolished and the site acquired by the Works. The former Richardson’s site had also been acquired by the company by this stage also and so when the Sirocco Works was taken over by James Howden Group in 1988 it dominated much of the Bridge End area.

By the late 1990s, road development to the immediate north of Bridge End and the construction of apartment blocks on the river bank to the south east of Queen’s Bridge transformed much of the area, with many industrial sites cleared away in the process. With the recent (October 1999) selling of the Howden Sirocco site, the process of change in Bridge End, in many respects a crucible of Belfast industry for two centuries, appears to be almost complete.

*It used to thought that Edwards was a glass master from Bristol, but the available evidence suggests he was from Dublin.
**The company was apparently taken over by a South African concern some years prior to this.

References- Primary sources
1 Linen Hall Library Belfast News Letter 1776-1824 [Various issues containing adverts etc. for Edwards’ flint glass-works]
2 Linen Hall Library James Williamson’s map of Belfast 1791
3 Joseph Smith’s Belfast Directories of 1807 and 1808 [UHF reprint 1991]
4 Linen Hall Library Plan of Belfast 1815
5 Linen Hall Library Plan of Belfast 1819
6 PRONI OS/1/1/61 OS maps 1st ed., Co. Antrim 61 [This map also shows Bridge End]
7 PRONI VAL/1B/332 First valuation, Knockbreda, c.1835
8 Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland Vol.7: Parishes of County Down II, ed. Angelique Day and Patrick McWilliams (QUB1991), p.99.
9 PRONI and Linen Hall Library Belfast street directories 1852-1996
10 PRONI OS/8/30/1/31, 37 OS Belfast town plans, 1858
11 PRONI Second valuation , Knockbreda, 1861 [In print in PRONI search room]
12 PRONI OS/8/30/5/31, 37, OS Belfast town plans, 1901-03
13 PRONI D.3639 Documents relating to Samuel Davidson & Co. Ltd. [This collection of papers contains daily report books concerning the extension of the Sirocco Works in c.1910+, one of which includes a rough cross section drawing of a proposed assembly shed. Plans of the works in 1928 are listed among the collection but at present (Sept. 1999) these are missing.]
14 Howden Sirocco Ltd. Map showing the Sirocco Works site in 1913.
15 Howden Sirocco Ltd. Plans showing proposed/executed extensions to the Sirocco Works by Alfred W. Brown, c.1920s
16 Belfast Central Library Belfast Telegraph, 4 November 1937 [Article concerning the collapse of the glass house cone and the old flint glass-works]
17 Howden Sirocco Ltd. Plans of the Sirocco Works c.1990s.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Large engineering works comprising of a disparate complex of mainly 20th century buildings much altered and added to over the years. To the north, next to the original entrance to the site from Bridge End, is the admin. block, a two storey brick and stucco building dating from 1900 and now largely plain in appearance. To the west the block merges with a large three storey ‘drawing office’ section, added in 1950 and also in brick, but totally modernist in appearance. To the south of this is an extremely large, hangar-like, metal clad, assembly shed, dating from c.1981. Further south are the remnants of two, three and two and half storey brick-built rows dating from c.1890, but largely demolished in c.1980. To the very south the is a large conglomeration of brick and metal clad gabled sheds of differing sizes, the earliest portions of which date from 1910-12, but which have grown organically in the intervening years. The most note worthy element of this conglomeration is the prominent west facing gable of one of the sheds, which, with the words ‘Sirocco Works’ emblazoned upon it, looms large over the River Lagan and is something of a prominent Belfast landmark.