Building record MDO45165 - Red Brick Café (Unit 57), St Michael's Trading Estate, St Michael's Lane, Bridport

Red Brick Café is a former warehouse and part of the St Michael's net works, used as a café by 2012, and adjoining buildings of late-19th and mid-20th century date. This building is roughly U-shaped in plan comprising the three-bay former warehouse, two attached buildings to the west (one largely demolished) and a mid-20th century addition to the south. It is constructed of brick with some blockwork to part of the single-storey building to the west. It has a tiled roof and a ridge stack of brick; the roof to the southern building is clad in corrugated sheeting. The principal (east) elevation has an off-centre entrance with a timber panelled door under an open-sided porch. To either side of the doorway there is a three-light timber casement under a segmental-headed brick lintel, and the first floor has two inserted window openings. This building was assessed for listing in 2012, but failed to meet the required criteria.

Bridport has been an important centre for the production of rope, twine and netting, originally from flax and hemp, from at least the 13th century, and possibly earlier. By the 16th century the town was a nationally-important centre for the production of rope for the Navy. Between the late 16th century and mid-19th century tackle, cordage and nets were made for the Newfoundland fisheries; sailcloth, sacking and tarpaulin were also produced. The Napoleonic Wars stimulated the trade of finished ropes and nets, for example, and gave Bridport its great period of prosperity. From the mid-19th century onwards the town was synonymous with the manufacture of nets for fishing, agricultural, sporting and other purposes, exporting them throughout the world. The First World further stimulated the industry leading to the manufacture of products for the military. By the mid-20th century many of the town’s smaller cordage businesses had amalgamated and there were two main manufacturers: Bridport Industries Ltd and Joseph Gundry & Co who subsequently merged in 1963.

Map and documentary evidence indicates that a number of open walks and ancillary buildings were present in the area to the west of St Michael’s Lane from the mid-19th century, but the area was extensively developed as an area for net, twine and rope production in the late 19th century and first half of the 20th century in response to the expansion of the Bridport’s cordage industry.

The building known as the Red Brick Café (Unit 57) and its attached structures are situated adjacent to the River Brit in the south-west part of St Michael’s Trading Estate. They are shown on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1887 together with a group of other buildings (demolished) to the north and are described as stores. The buildings also appear on a 1929 plan of St Michael’s Works as a sheepskin rug works. St Michael’s Works was owned by William Edwards and Son, and their net works complex extended of most of the southern half of the St Michael’s area by the early 20th century. A single-storey ancillary range was added to the south of the Red Brick Café after 1929.

MATERIALS: constructed of red brick in a stretcher bond, with modern blockwork to part of the single-storey building to the west. It has a plain tile roof and a ridge stack of brick; the roof to the southern building is clad in corrugated sheeting; the building to the west has doubled Roman tiles.

PLAN: roughly U-shaped in plan comprising the three-bay former warehouse, two attached buildings to the west (one largely demolished) and a mid-20th century addition to the south.

EXTERIOR: the principal (east) elevation has an off-centre entrance with a timber panelled door under an open-sided porch. To either side of the doorway there is a three-light timber casement under a segmental-headed brick lintel, and the first floor has two inserted window openings. The north return has a symmetrical arrangement of two late-19th century three-light casements to the ground floor and two of two-light above. There is also a central taking-in door at first floor. The north elevation has no openings and a scar in the brickwork marks the position of an attached building (largely demolished) to the west. The south gable wall has a ground-floor opening that has been blocked and a three-light casement to the upper floor. The east elevation of single-storey addition has large timber sliding doors and two windows under concrete lintels; there are timber windows to the west elevation. The single-storey building to the west of the café has a doorway and a blocked window in its north elevation. The east wall has been substantially rebuilt in modern blockwork, while the south gable wall has an inserted opening with double doors and a doorway to the right. The west elevation was inaccessible.

INTERIOR: the former warehouse is divided internally into two rooms and there is a simple brick fireplace in the partition wall whose stack rises through the building. The stack is a later insertion and was probably added when the building was converted to a sheepskin rug works and provided heat to dry the skins. A wooden staircase leads to the upper floor where the king post roof trusses, braced struts and two rows of purlins are exposed. The southern addition has slender A-frame trusses; the building to the west could not be internally inspected.

The former warehouse building, known as the Red Brick Café, on St Michael's Trading Estate is not recommended for listing for the following principal reasons:

Architecture: the building is of modest architectural interest and does not display any distinctive functional or constructional characteristics. It lacks the architectural quality which distinguishes the best examples of commercial and industrial architecture of this period;

Constructional technology: there is no evidence suggesting that the former warehouse is of innovative structural form, or that it represents a significant stage in the development of the building type;

Date: the warehouse dates from a period in the history of Bridport when such buildings were widespread and better examples survive elsewhere and are listed. <1>

<1> English Heritage, English Heritage Listing File, 1413617 (Scheduling record). SDO17502.

No-list case number 1413617, assessed in 2012.

<2> National Record of the Historic Environment, 1588926 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Aug 30 2024 11:22AM