Great Western Coffee Shop

Sideshoots - associated subjects => The Lighter Side => Topic started by: grahame on May 08, 2023, 21:13:26



Title: Where was I today (8.5.23)
Post by: grahame on May 08, 2023, 21:13:26
I don't know if it's even a railway building but it's quite close to a railway.

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/wwi20230508.jpg)


Title: Re: Where was I today (8.5.23)
Post by: PrestburyRoad on May 08, 2023, 21:27:03
Enlarging the picture shows the remains of words such as Aylesbury, Dairy and Laundry.  But the building isn't in Aylesbury.  I admit that I located it by using Google, but I won't name the location lest I spoil the fun too much.


Title: Re: Where was I today (8.5.23)
Post by: Hal on May 08, 2023, 21:34:13
Swindon


Title: Re: Where was I today (8.5.23)
Post by: ellendune on May 08, 2023, 21:37:49
Swindon

Just beat me it is on the opposite side of Station Rd to the drop off.  I think it used to be called the Alexandra Laundry


Title: Re: Where was I today (8.5.23)
Post by: grahame on May 08, 2023, 22:00:06
Swindon

Just beat me it is on the opposite side of Station Rd to the drop off.  I think it used to be called the Alexandra Laundry

Location correct.   I'll take your word for "Alexandra Laundry".

Need to go and pick a guest up in Tesco in Swindon ... cropped up at 14:25.  Panic (not even socks) and Lisa helped me dash in the c-a-r to the station. 10 people walking up station approach as we got there. Darn it - 14:33 was on time rather that fashionably late, but good to see the numbers even middle day, Bank Holiday.

Driven to Chippenham and JUST caught (run over bridge) 14:55 to Swindon - most seats taken in the carriage I was in. No trolley to be seen. No seat 61 (only went up to 60).  Hard seats. Platform 1 at Swindon at 15:10 / return train to Melksham was headed out at 15:14 from platform 3.

Homeward journey - by road (I drove via RWB and Calne).


Title: Re: Where was I today (8.5.23)
Post by: bradshaw on May 08, 2023, 22:01:25
Started off as cheese factory
Quote
 The building started out as a cheese factory, built between 1841 and 1876, and was owned by the London based Aylesbury Dairy Company, founded in 1865. The factory supplied dairy products to London via the Great Western Railway, situated opposite. In 1876 the Company commissioned the Swindon based architect William Herbert Read to draw up proposals for a small extension to the factory with a mill & butter dairy. It is not known whether this was ever built (it is now no longer there).

In June 1891, after the cheese factory closed, its contents were sold through public auction, and subsequently the building was converted to become the Swindon Steam Laundry Company, owned by Robbins and Renshaw (Kelly's Directory Wiltshire, 1895). Plans of 1891, signed by the Swindon based architect Ellis Herbert Pritchett of Bishop & Pritchett Auctioneers & Architects (Kelly's Directory Wiltshire, 1895), with the proposed alterations marked in red, show an L-shaped building that follows the footprint of the cheese factory shown on Read's block plan of 1876. Pritchett's plans show two parallel ranges, one of single storey height and one of two storeys, both with pitched roofs. To the rear was a delivery and distribution yard, lined with horse boxes, a ‘Carpet Beating Room’ and an ‘Open Van Shed’. From here the dirty laundry was to be delivered to the ‘Receiving and Sorting Room, with its adjacent ‘Office’ and ‘Board Room’, then passed to the ‘General Wash House’ with its adjacent boiler room which had a tall chimney. The clean laundry was then brought to the ‘Mangling, Drying and Ironing Room’ on the ground floor, and/or the ‘Airing Room for Flannel & Woollen Goods’, which occupied the entire first floor. This was flanked to the rear by the ‘Women’s Mess Room’ and ‘Hats and Cloak Room’ (early C20 photographic evidence shows that the Laundry employed mostly women). Once the laundry had dried, it went to the ‘Finishing Room’ and then the 'Packing Room' on the ground floor before being re-distributed.

By 1942, as indicated on the Ordnance Survey map published in that year, the rear yard appears to have been filled in. In the c1960s (prior to it being listed), the building remained in use as a commercial laundry, and was altered and extended to the rear, incorporating the site of a former row of terraced houses along Haydon Street. This resulted in the loss of the rear of the steam laundry including the distribution yard with the boiler room, chimney, parts of the General Wash House, the Receiving and Sorting Room, and the Office and Board Room. The 1960s extensions that replaced this part of the C19 building, have recently been demolished with Listed Building Consent (November 2012).

https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1355881?section=official-list-entry


Title: Re: Where was I today (8.5.23)
Post by: ellendune on May 09, 2023, 11:43:40
I'll take your word for "Alexandra Laundry".

Came from the back of my mind but I can't find anything to substantiate it so less sure now  It appears that it is in the process of being converted into a large Hotel.


Title: Re: Where was I today (8.5.23)
Post by: stuving on May 09, 2023, 19:23:17
I'll take your word for "Alexandra Laundry".

Came from the back of my mind but I can't find anything to substantiate it so less sure now  It appears that it is in the process of being converted into a large Hotel.

If you look for the name "Alexandra Laundry" written on the building, you can find it. But you can also - and more convincingly - find "Southern Laundry", which is what it was really called (from 1899 to 1941, at least).



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