Alternative Names Castle Mills; Fountainbridge; Scottish And Newcastle Brewery; Fountain Brewery Offices
Site type OFFICE(S), RUBBER WORKS
Canmore ID 151836
Site Number NT27SW 2848
NGR NT 24343 72783
Council EDINBURGH, CITY OF
Parish EDINBURGH (EDINBURGH, CITY OF)
Former Region LOTHIAN
Former District CITY OF EDINBURGH
Former County MIDLOTHIAN

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Architectural Notes

NT27SW 2848 24343 72783

Edinburgh, Gilmore Park, Castle Mills, North British Rubber Company.
Architect: Frank Blance, 1929.

Plans:
Edinburgh, Gilmore Park, Castle Mills, North British Rubber Company.
R.I.B.A. Drawings Collection, Frank Blance, 1929.
-Designs for extension of tyre department.

(Undated) information in NMRS.

Notes and Activities

14 July 2010

SITE MANAGEMENT

Project Buildings at Risk Register BARR

Notes 2-storey and basement, 16-bay, near L-plan former premises of the North British Rubber Company, rounded at corner junction. Painted brick. Advanced basement; pilasters dividing bays; cornice to corner bay at SE corner of Gilmore Park; predominantly segmental-arched openings.Predominantly 4-pane timber sash and case windows, 16-pane to NE elevation. Grey slate piended roof; corniced brick wallhead stacks. Cast-iron rainwater goods. (Historic Scotland) The site, formerly Castle Silk Mills, located alongside the Edinburgh and Glasgow Union Canal, was acquired in 1856 by the North British Rubber Co, an American concern founded to use Charles Goodyear's patent for vulcanising rubber, and greatly extended. In operation until the late 1960s, the business moved out to Newbridge in the 1960s and most of the buildings were demolished around 1971 to be replaced by a new mechanised brewery built for Scottish Brewers. ( RCAHMS) The North British Rubber Company started production making tyres, conveyors, combs, golf balls, hot water bottles and rubber flooring and rubber boots. Rubber boot production was boosted by World War I as the War Office commissioned The North British Rubber Company to construct a sturdy boot suitable for the flooded trenches. During the war 1,185,036 pairs of trench boots were made, with mills running 24 hours a day to keep up with the Army's demand. North British Rubber was bought by Uniroyal Limited in 1966, and sold on a number of times subsequently before a management buy-out in 2004 established an independant company, Hunter Boot Limited. (Hunter Boot Limited)

BARR website http://www.buildingsatrisk.org.uk/details/915592

Further details