Statutory list reference: 9/10012 (180)

Statutory List grade: Grade II* (star)
First listed: 26/06/1996
Period: 1794-5
Monument type: Foundry / Erecting Shop
National Grid reference E: 403411  N: 288887
Conservation Area: It is not in a Conservation Area
Building at risk: This building is at risk

Statutory list description:

(This entry was amended on 23/07/1997.  Upgraded from List Grade II to Grade II* and description added to include pattern stores.)

Foundry, pattern stores and erecting shops.  Built in 1794-5 for Matthew Bolton and James Watt; extended 1800 and later C19 and C20 alterations; pattern stores 1797, 1799-1800, 1809,1845 and later C19.  Red brick.  Belfast truss roofs clad in corrugated sheet steel with ventilation louvres on ridges and brick-coped gable-ends. 

PLAN:  rectangular plan foundry with casting pit and boring mill at east end, extended to west c.1800 and late C19 parallel range added on north side.  Along the north side of the original foundry a tunnel leads to a long range of pattern stores to the north-west, extended northwards in 1799-1800 and 1809, with 1845 pattern store at south-east end, on site of 1799 sand bins, wider late C19 pattern store and pattern shop built above.  To the north of the original foundry, a large erecting shop was added in 1850. 

EXTERIOR:  20 bays 3 tiers of segmentally arched windows, some blocked, below corbelled brick eaves.  The gable-ends have large blocked round arched openings with 3 oculi above. 

INTERIOR:  Two orders of blind arches in the walls with butresses between, at the east end is the casting pit and boring mill, on the north side of the original foundry a long vaulted brick tunnel leading to the long range of vaulted pattern stores to the north-west.

HISTORY:  in 1794 Matthew Boulton & James Watt established the firm of Boulton & Watt, and in 1794-5 they built the Soho Foundry to manufacture steam engines more efficiently.  Boulton required a power source for his earlier factory (Soho Manufactory, demolished 1860) and James Watt had been called to act as a consultant, eventually resulting in their historic partnership.  At the new Soho Foundry Boulton and Watt produced, for the first time, complete steam engines, making and assembling all the separate components on one site. 

From 1798 the foundry manager was William Murdock, engineer and inventor of gas lighting, which was installed at the Soho Foundry from 1800-1803, making it one of the earliest factories to be lit by gas-light.

Further information:

This building or structure is included in the schedule of buildings of special architectural or historic interest made under to the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 and preceding legislation. This record was last updated on 1st April 2006. For advice as to any subsequent additions or deletions to the statutory list entry, please contact the Council's Conservation Officer.