Tobacco Factory Raleigh Road, Southville Bristol BS3 1TF UK
Architect George Ferguson bought the Tobacco Factory in 1995 to save it from the fate of its grander neighbours on the Raleigh Road Imperial Site in Ashton, Bristol, for which he had a dream to turn into “a one million square foot thriving mixed use ‘urban village’ prior to their senseless demolition”. The Tobacco Factory project is his realisation of a small part of that dream and it has become a model of economical and sustainable urban regeneration. The Franklyn Davey & Co building, named after one of the smaller Bristol tobacco companies taken over by Imperial Tobacco Co in 1901, was built in 1912 to the design of architect Sir Frank Wills, the son of HO Wills the second, Chairman of WD&HO Wills. Sir Frank was Lord Mayor of Bristol and knighted in 1912. He was the architect of all the 20th century brick buildings on the two great Wills/Imperial sites at East Street and Raleigh Road Bedminster, as well as many other Bristol landmarks and institutions, most notably the flamboyant roman baroque City Museum & Art Gallery (1900-1904) in Queens Road which was donated to the City by his father – not a bad little project for a young architect! The Tobacco Factory is marked with the initials FD&Co cast into the decorative terracotta pediment over the main Raleigh Road entrance. The Bridgwater brickwork is beautifully detailed with a host of ‘specials’ giving the massive external walls the importance that Wills and Imperial liked to vest in their factories, reflecting the care that they also took to be exemplar employers. They may have been unwittingly killing the population with their products but they showed an unusual level of care for their staff and pensioners who made up most of the population of the surrounding streets. Many still live nearby and enjoy using the bar and theatre alongside the younger newcomers to the area. The Seventies saw great change with the building of a massive new steel framed ‘state of the art’ factory and offices in Hartcliffe to the design of the great Chicago based architects SOM. This resulted in the company moving out of its old sites and the subsequent speculation and demolition of buildings that should have been protected. It was an irony that the new 1972 building was to be listed by English Heritage, although Imperial moved out in the Eighties and only the frame of the office building over the fine landscaped lake now remains. This is, subject to planning and listed building consent, to be transformed by the award winning developers Urban Splash, to a mixed use building to the designs of George Ferguson’s practice Acanthus Ferguson Mann and it is hoped will contribute to the regeneration of the Hartcliffe area as the Tobacco Factory development has undoubtedly done so to the Ashton/Southville area.