WD & HO Wills factory, Coast Road, Newcastle upon Tyne – Cecil Hockin – 1946
Sorry it’s been so long since my last post. These piccies were taken months ago during my Christmas travels around the country – it gets dark very early and rather quickly in December and it was a really cold day, which is why they’re not quite up to scratch (and besides, I had parties to get to), but I hope that they give you a decent enough idea of the building. And we did have fun there!
The factory was designed by Cecil Hockin who was apparently an in-house Imperial Tobacco Company architect. This suggests that he may also have designed the Wills factory in Glasgow, see previous entry (- thanks to Demdoggydog for the pointer).
The factory closed in 1986 and it laid derelict until the 90s when it was converted into apartments by Wimpey. You can see some fabulous photos taken during the last few days the factory operated at Amber Online.
You can read more about architecture in the Newcastle and Gateshead region, including the Wills building, in this rather lovely book: Newcastle and Gateshead: Architecture and Heritage
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