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.
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