Survey Data
Reg No
50080148
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Technical
Original Use
Vat hall
In Use As
Outbuilding
Date
1790 - 1810
Coordinates
314321, 233855
Date Recorded
25/06/2013
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Attached three-bay three-storey gable-fronted vat house, built c.1800, now in use as outbuilding. Recent pitched metal roof behind parapet. Brick capping to parapets. Brown brick walls laid in Flemish bond to front (north) elevation having recent brickwork to upper storey. Dressed limestone walls to rear and east elevations having brown brick gable to rear and parapet to east. Double-height segmental-arched window opening to front elevation, flanked by square-headed window openings to second floor. Replacement metal windows. Segmental-arched opening to rear second floor having brown brick surround and brown brick rounded relieving arch above, timber battened shutter. Square-headed openings to rear second and first floor having metal bars and brick infill. Segmental-headed door opening to front elevation, camber-arched and round-arched door openings to rear elevation, brown brick surrounds. Limestone flag flooring and cast-iron columns to ground floor interior. Machinery and vats in situ.
Appraisal
This former vat house retains its early form and industrial character. Early fabric remains in the brickwork and stonemasonry. Built as part of an early expansion phase, it is one of the earliest surviving buildings on the site, along with the neighbouring vat house attached to the west. It remained in use until the 1980s and machinery of technical interest remains in situ. Vat houses were used to mature stout before delivery, and the construction of these two indicates the significant expansion of the brewery at the turn of the eighteenth century. These and the other early brewery buildings remained in use following the construction of Brewery 2 and the vat houses on Rainsford Street in the late nineteenth century, due to the high volume of production. At one time the largest brewery in the world, the Guinness Brewery complex remains the largest industrial site in the city centre.