The Birkin Building
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The Birkin Building was the international headquarters of the world-leading Birkin & Co. lace manufacturers and occupies one of the most significant sites in Nottingham’s industrial and architectural heritage. 2 - 12 Broadway, Nottingham.
he Birkin Building stands proudly on the front cover of Made’s September/October edition this year. Here we have a peek at a little of the history behind the beautiful piece of architecture standing firmly in its place in history in Nottingam City Centre. The town of Nottingham in the mid-1800’s was almost completely built up and political wrangling prevented any new builds on the open sites to both the north and south of the town. As the industry declined and hosiers left their large gentry houses of the ‘old borough’, conveniently located close to both the newly opened post office in 1840 and railway station in 1836, this provided the ideal solution for the lace manufacturers in desperate need of warehouses with good infrastructure links. So, alongside Thomas Adams, Richard Birkin began transforming the area into The Lace Market we know today. Richard Birkin purchased at auction Plumptre House in February 1953 for £8,410 - one of the most prestigious mansions and standing next to St Mary’s Church. This was then demolished to make way for a new set of warehouses and a new street, ‘Broadway’, which was specifically designed by architect T.C. Hine with a curve in the centre to give the
illusion of a cul-de-sac from either end, thus making it more attractive to visitors. Unique to The Lace Market is a boundary line installed by Richard Birkin to mark his territory. From then on, Broadway became mostly synonymous with the Birkin family. As manufacture was moved to New Basford, Nottingham and Glasgow, Broadway officially became the headquarters of Birkin & Co housing finishing rooms, stocks rooms, warehousing, sales, accounts and administration.
The Architecture The gateway, which leads to the Jacoby warehouse on the southern side, incorporated some delightful stonework detail. Etched into the stone were Birkin’s initials and bee emblem, an architect’s motif of dividers and squares, together with the builder’s initials G and H (Garland and Holland) and a builder’s motif of hammer and trowel with the date 1855, the year the warehouse was completed. The building of the warehouse was problematic following the discovery of a medieval tiered sandstone cave system under the site, used for the brewing of ale. Problematic also was the rooflight, one of the largest in The Lace Market, and designed to allow light to flood the sales rooms below. This was especially important as the rear of the building was almost completed devoid of windows. While the natural light allowed the ladies on the top floor to complete such intricate work as mending, drawing and jennying the lace, it caused something of a problem in the Second World War when it had to be covered in black out curtains to prevent light seeping out and thus foil the Luftwaffe. As already established, the curve of the building was designed to allow the ‘cul-de-sac’ impression. However, another story exists that this curve was created on the order of Richard Birkin so that the perimeter of the building was one foot longer than that of Messrs Adams and Page, whose rival warehouse was being built only a few yards away. Although architecturally inferior to the ‘Adams Building’, Birkin & Co. could now claim their building was bigger, reinforcing the adage that size matters!
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