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Dronsfield's Offices in Oldham, Lancashire, England are a grade-II-listed office building designed and built in 1906–7/8 by J. Henry Sellers.[1][2]

Background

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J. Henry Sellers (1861–1954) was a self-taught architect from a working-class background who had worked for Walter Green Penty in York and George Dale Oliver in Carlisle, before setting up in partnership with David Jones in his native Oldham in 1899.[3] He designed an extension to a house at 9 Alexandra Road, Oldham, with two cubes of different heights under flat roofs of reinforced concrete, which brought him to the attention of the architect Edgar Wood in 1903. Soon afterwards the two set up an informal partnership that resulted in a series of innovative flat-roofed buildings,[3][4][5] of which the Dronsfield office building, designed by Sellers alone in 1906, was one of the earliest.[6] Other examples of these works are the house Dalny Veed in Barley, Hertfordshire (1907),[7] the Durnford Street (1908) and Elm Street Schools (1909), and shops in Middleton Gardens (1908),[8] all designed jointly, as well as Upmeads, Stafford, Staffordshire (1908), which was designed by Wood alone.[5][9]

Dronsfield Brothers Ltd was an Oldham firm that made machinery for the textile industry.[10] Sellers had previously completed work on private houses in Oldham for William and James Dronsfield.[11]

Description

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Dronsfield's Offices are on Ashton Road (A627; formerly on King Street[6]) in Oldham, at SD9239804506.[2] The two-storey, seven-bay office building has a flat reinforced concrete roof. The front face is finished with brick glazed in green with polished granite dressings.[2][12][13] The symmetrical front face has a central low recessed tower surmounting the main entrance, which is flanked by three windowed bays to each side.[2][6] The central entrance bay has a small arched window to the first floor, with another arched window above in the recessed tower; there are chimneys to either side of the tower. The main windows to both the ground and first floors of the flanking sections have a narrow mullion and iron frames with sixteen panes.[2]

The interior in the original plan had a show room, general office, drawing office, boardroom and two small private offices, as well as the main front stairs and a side stairs. The general and drawing offices were originally finished with tiles, while the private offices and the boardroom had teak panelling.[13]

Critical reception

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Nikolaus Pevsner, in a 1942 article, describes the building as "one of the early twentieth-century pioneers", "strikingly similar" to Upmeads, a slightly later house by Sellers' partner, Edgar Wood, and with "just as daring a spirit".[14] In his 1969 guide to South Lancashire, he describes it as "very simple, unassuming" yet "emphatically cubic" unlike other English buildings of its date,[15] and "valid pioneer work for a C20 style", which uses "remarkable" materials; he particularly highlights the stone surrounds to the doors and windows as unusual for the date.[16]

Clare Hartwell and coauthors describe the building as among the area's "most innovative and unusual commercial buildings", "proto-Modernist" in style, with an upper section recalling the Baroque architect Nicholas Hawksmoor.[17]

References

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  1. ^ Hartwell et al., pp. 83, 540–41, plate 104
  2. ^ a b c d e Offices of Dronsfield and Company, National Heritage List for England, Historic England (accessed 17 February 2025)
  3. ^ a b J. Henry Sellers, Dictionary of Scottish Architects, Historic Environment Scotland (2016; accessed 17 February 2025)
  4. ^ Morris, pp. 148–49
  5. ^ a b John H. G. Archer (2007) [2004]. Wood, Edgar. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/61675
  6. ^ a b c Morris, p. 150
  7. ^ Hill House, National Heritage List for England, Historic England (accessed 18 February 2025)
  8. ^ 33, 35 and 37 Middleton Gardens, National Heritage List for England, Historic England (accessed 18 February 2025)
  9. ^ Morris, pp. 150–53
  10. ^ Dronfield Brothers Ltd, The National Archives (accessed 19 February 2025)
  11. ^ Architectural Societies: Manchester Society of Architects. The Builder 89 (3258): 68 (1905)
  12. ^ Pevsner 1969, pp. 48–49, 358, plate 92
  13. ^ a b New premises for Messrs. Dronsfield Bros., Oldham. J. Henry Sellers, architect. The Builders' Journal and Architectural Engineer 30 (759): 149–50 (1909)
  14. ^ Nikolaus Pevsner (1942). Nine Swallows—No Summer. The Architectural Review. Reprinted in: Nikolaus Pevsner, J. M. Richards, eds. The Anti-Rationalists, pp. 203–8 (Architectural Press; 1973)
  15. ^ Pevsner 1969, pp. 48–49
  16. ^ Pevsner 1969, p. 358
  17. ^ Hartwell et al., p. 83
Sources
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