Building record MDR13031 - Former electricity generating hall and tram depot, High Street West, Glossop

The former Electricity Generating Hall and Tram Depot were built in 1903 for the Urban Electricity Supply Company and were centred around a coal-fired electricity generation station which provided power for a tram system running between Glossop, Old Glossop and Hadfield, with a spur line to Charlesworth, and for other business and domestic uses. The complex of buildings also included a tram depot, repair shop, boiler house and chimney stack (now demolished) and offices for what was Glossop's first such tramway, which remained operational until Christmas Eve 1927 when the business closed. The site was then sold to a chemical production company and the original buildings have been extensively altered and extended since that time. The 1921 OS map shows the complex, with the tram depot to the north having tracks emerging from its east gable wall. Attached to it to the south is the generating station and its boiler house and chimney. The office building is at the eastern extremity of the complex, with a rear wing linked to the other two main structures. The site had a short operational life of 24 years, and has since been heavily altered. The surviving original buildings are now partially embedded within more recent structures. They are constructed of coursed gritstone with ashlar gritstone dressings and Welsh slate roof coverings. The office range is a symmetrical seven-bay building of two storeys with attics and a deep hipped roof. It is T-shaped on plan and has a three-storey rear wing which connects with the former generating hall and the adjacent former tram shed. Its front elevation has an impressive semi-circular arch-headed doorway with a deep hood mould and attached flanking columns, and the window openings to the ground floor have shallow keyed segmental arches. The side elevations are similarly detailed. The entrance front to the former tram shed is now partially obscured but two of the original four arched openings are still visible, one now infilled. The openings have shallow segmental arched heads with attenuated stepped voussoirs and formed an arcade with narrow piers separating the openings. Within the building's wide gable apex is a semi-circular lunette, with similarly detailed voussoirs. The interior, roof structure and roof covering are 20th century replacements in steel and corrugated asbestos. The generating shed survives only in part and has been heavily altered. Its south-east elevation was originally detailed in similar fashion to the ram shed, with a lunette to the gable apex, and is one of two masonry walls to survive. However, the remaining parts of the building are 20th century replacements. The former chimney and boiler house have been demolished and all original plant and equipment removed. The site was assessed for listing in 2009, but it was concluded that in view of the alterations and extensions to the buildings and the removal of evidence of their function, they could not be considered nationally important. (1)