Hill Paul in the rain

I was missing a couple of necessary views to complete the photographic record I've been assembling of the 'Local List of Heritage assets'. The first version of the List comprises forty-five buildings or unique architectural features in the town centre that are not classified as Listed properties.

Hill Paul, shown here, is probably the most prominent building on the Local List, standing as it does on a rise just above the Stroudwater canal and the River Frome close to the heart of the town. I stood at the southern exit of the Brunel designed railway station, which is a listed building, to take this picture this morning, in the gloom under a very thick cloudy sky with rain still drizzling down.

This building was a late architect-designed Victorian clothing factory built in 1898 for Williamson Tratt & Co, for a clothing business, which was taken over in 1902 by Hill Paul & Co. It is unusual as it was not constructed as a stone-built textile mill in the valley bottom like so many other Stroud industrial buildings. The polychromatic brickwork design is by Henry A. Cheers of Teddington (Middlesex). 

It became redundant in 1989 and was threatened with demolition when developer-led reports stated it was unsafe and uneconomic. A range of local activists formed a protest group in 2000 called the Hill Paul Regeneration Group, which managed to save the structure and it was eventually converted very successfully into flats. Two wholly new floors were then added at the top of the building. I have had the chance sometime ago to visit three of the four top-floor flats to take photographs of the surrounding area. They each have a wide balcony which provide wonderful views.