Thomas Briggs building

This building is a Georgian factory built in the 1700’s and was one of the first to be built on South-gate road. Throughout the first and first and second World War this factory was a tent manufacturer, for the Army until 1950’s. After this date, It was always a business that carried heavy canvas goods. The factory relied massively on the canal, to import the industrial goods they needed. The factory closed down in the 1960’s as it struggled for business, due to the canal not importing goods anymore and other factories and more contemporary buildings, were being constructed around it.

I have visited this building many times and spoke to the owner, who informed me that the building has had little refurbishment, and still has all of it’s original brick work on the outside. There is a small section to the right of the building that has been converted into a furniture shop. It is called the 2&4 that opened in 1997 and is known as a luxury, cool local coffee and sandwich shop, which also sells 20th century furniture. They also sell one off mirror and lighting designs and believe, where they are situated their services are a happy distraction for locals to unwind and forget about work. They take pride in providing some interesting well crafted designs and a good turnover of well priced vintage furniture. In 1997 other parts of the building were split into small units for artist and other rooms are rented to live in. I come across a resident who was walking his dog and he explained that the rooms inside the building, have not been refurbished.