The town’s built environment may be divided into a number of sections. Two principal ones are the High Street, most of which is still late Victorian or Edwardian, and the shoe factories which are scattered all over the town.

A feature of the old town was, and still is, the number of places where factories and houses stand ‘ cheek by jowl’ (factories attached to the terraced housing), of which so much of the town is composed. Even now you can make an interesting exercise by viewing the factories from an architectural perspective. There are many small, but attractive details included in these utilitarian structures, from the ‘Jacobean’ façade of Claridge’s old factory on Wellingborough Road to a fanciful ‘Gibbs surround’ for a doorway in Crabb Street.

Of a definite architectural merit is the factory built by one of the towns most successful shoemakers, John White. Located in Lime Street but best seen from Higham Road. The grade II listed building designed by Professor Albert Richardson and built in 1938 has now been converted into flats. John White once described it as the most beautiful factory in the shoe trade.

Also of the thirties is a building at the north end of the High Street, originally a bus depot for Birch Bros. daily and hourly service to London. First built in cream and green tiles its present blue colour does not enhance the building. However, the wrought iron railings are worth a glance.