Summary
Complex of former malting buildings, begun in 1846 and extended in the mid- and late C19; adapted for retail, residential and cultural use in the late C20 and early C21.
Reasons for Designation
Snape Maltings, a complex of former malting buildings, begun in 1846, extended in the mid- and late C19, and adapted for retail, residential and cultural use in the late C20 and early C21, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest:
* as a well-executed complex of industrial buildings, which makes an impressive architectural statement along Snape Bridge Road;
* as a distinctive group of buildings constructed by local craftsmen using local building materials, including red and white bricks from Garrett’s own brickworks at Aldeburgh;
* while the former industrial buildings have undergone some alteration in their conversion to retail, residential and cultural use, they retain a high degree of their original plan form and features pertaining to their former industrial use as a maltings;
* as a complex of buildings which clearly demonstrates the flow of the industrial malting process.
Historic interest:
* as tangible evidence of the industrial success of Snape Maltings in the mid- and late C19, as the largest maltings in Suffolk;
* for the national and international success of the site as an entertainment venue and cultural destination since the successful conversion of the largest malthouse on the site to a concert hall in 1966.
Group value:
* for its strong group value with other listed buildings on the Snape Maltings site, including Snape Bridge House, built by the owner Newson Garrett as a private residence for his family in the 1850s and extended in 1882 (listed at Grade II).
History
Snape Bridge is the most westerly navigable point of the River Alde, and the last road bridge to cross the river before the sea. It had for centuries been an important deep-water quay providing trading links to London and beyond. From the end of the C18 the coal and corn merchant’s business of Osborne and Fennell operated from the wharf on the south bank of the river. Snape Bridge was rebuilt in 1802, the road improved, and the wharf greatly expanded. Newson Garrett (1812-1893) bought Fennell’s business and the adjoining pasture known as ‘Bridge Marsh’ in 1841 and set about expanding the venture. By 1844 Garrett had large warehouses and an extensive malting at Snape and was sending 17,000 quarts of barley a year to London and Newcastle brewers (White, 525). A major building programme between around 1846 and 1859 began with a quadrangle of buildings designed for the storage, turning, and malting of barley. Malting itself began on the site around 1854, around the time that Garrett purchased a share in a brewery at Bow Bridge in East London. The new buildings at Snape were reputedly designed by Garrett himself and utilised red and white brick from his own brickworks at Aldeburgh. Garrett’s diverse business interests extended far beyond malting; in 1855 he was described as a maltster, lime, coal and corn merchant, shipbuilder and brick and whiting manufacturer.
In the late 1850s Garrett persuaded the East Suffolk Railway to build a spur to the maltings by guaranteeing them regular freight, and a branch line was opened in 1859. Garrett seized this opportunity to greatly expand malting at Snape and embarked on a major building programme. Barley was delivered to Snape and taken in from Snape Bridge Road via lucams. First it was dressed or cleaned, then steeped in water for four days to swell the grain, the water being changed at regular intervals. The wet grain was then spread out to germinate on concrete bays, kept at a constant temperature of 70 degrees and regularly turned with wide shovels to achieve aeration. During this process, the hard grain changed to soft, sweet malt. After about eight days, when the grain had started to shoot, it was spread out to dry in kilns, over perforated floors heated by coal furnaces below. Heat was gradually increased over around 5 five days to halt any further germination, with the maltsters again regularly turning the grain using wooden shovels. On the last day of the process, the bluffs in the roof were opened to release the steam. The malt was then cleaned of its rootlets, and stored ready for dispatch.
In 1882, the company of Newson Garrett & Son was formed to run the Snape maltings site, with Newson’s son George Garrett as manager. Further new buildings were constructed at the maltings in the 1880s and 1890s, and others remodelled. A new signal box was constructed at the goods station, and several houses erected for maltings employees, together with a village hall and school. The New House or Kiln No.5 (now the Concert Hall) was the last of the kiln buildings to be constructed; its kilns used to dry pale malt for light-coloured beers. The management of the Snape maltings passed to George’s nephew, George Edmund ‘Maurice’ Cowell until he joined the armed forces in 1914. During the First World War the military and admiralty made use of the wharf and siding at Snape Bridge, often to the detriment of the maltings business. The company’s men were either drafted or enlisted, a shortage of cereal crops in 1917 worsened the company’s prospects, and the site’s young manager Maurice Cowell was killed in action in 1916. Newson Garrett & Son was merged with S Swonnell & Son in October 1918, a London firm of maltsters, and a large new barley store was constructed on the Bridge Road frontage.
On the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 the government ordered the suspension of commercial shipping on the Alde. After the Second World War the Snape maltings complex became increasingly antiquated; the buildings proved difficult to adapt to modern mechanized methods, and the marshy ground on which the buildings were constructed was unsuitable for heavy equipment. Two further buildings were however constructed in the early 1950s, one of which, a barley store, still survives. As the maltings business declined so did the profitability of the railway. By the 1950s all malt and barley leaving or entering the site was transported by road; the railway goods shed, by then in poor repair, was demolished in 1957 and in March 1960 the railway itself finally closed. Swonnell & Son went into voluntary liquidation in 1965 and the maltings site, Plough & Sail public house, 27 dwellings in the village, and 32 acres of land were put up for sale. The maltings site was purchased by George Gooderham, with the intention of using part of the complex for milling and the storage of animal feed.
The nearby Aldeburgh Festival of Music and Arts was founded in 1948 by the composer Benjamin Britten (1913-1976), singer Peter Pears (1910-1986) and opera librettist and theatrical director Eric Crozier (1914-1994). The Aldeburgh Festival had used a variety of locations for concerts, but the established and growing popularity of the event necessitated a move to a larger and permanent home. After the Snape maltings site was acquired by Gooderham, Britten and Stephen Reiss, the manager of the Aldeburgh Festival identified an opportunity to convert the largest of the former malthouses into a concert hall and recording studio, and approached Ove Arup and Partners for a survey. The resultant conversion, designed by Derek Sugden of Arup Associates, was carried out between 1966 and 1967, and the venue was opened by Her Majesty The Queen in June 1967. In 1969 a fire reduced the Concert Hall to an open shell, and with the help of a fund-raising appeal, was restored and re-opened as a venue in June 1970. The site has since been developed as a cultural destination, and in 2003 the Arts Council of England designated Aldeburgh as one of three centres of excellence in music provision.
Details
Complex of former malting buildings, begun in 1846 and extended in the mid- and late C19; adapted for retail, residential and cultural use in the late C20 and early C21.
MATERIALS:
The quadrangle is generally constructed of red brick with a slate roof covering; the roof of the north malting range is clad in asbestos cement corrugated sheeting. The main gate has a slate roof, and red brick walls with gault brick dressings to its front elevation. The two 1860s malting buildings have slate and corrugated sheeting roof coverings and gault brick walls. The 1885 barley store has a slate roof and red brick walls.
PLAN:
The complex of malting buildings forms a long frontage running north-south along Snape Bridge Road. The quadrangle is roughly trapezoidal on plan, being narrower at the front (west) to Snape Bridge Road, and spanning outward to the rear (east), with a trapezoidal-plan courtyard to the interior. The main gate is attached to the south side of the front range of the quadrangle, and is rectangular on plan, facing west to Snape Bridge Road. The two 1860’s malting buildings extend south from the gate house and are each rectangular on plan, facing west to Snape Bridge Road. The 1885 barley store is attached to the north side of the front range of the quadrangle and is rectangular on plan.
EXTERIOR:
The quadrangle is a substantial complex of buildings arranged around a courtyard, comprising a former gatehouse and two malting buildings, begun in 1846 and extended to the rear (east) in the mid- to late-C19; all were converted to retail, residential, or cultural use in the late C20 and early C21. The front range facing Snape Bridge Road is three-storeys in height and roughly symmetrical in appearance, with a long pitched slate roof over a central three-bay gatehouse flanked to either side (north and south) by an eight-bay malting building. The shallow-pitched roof to Snape Bridge Road is covered in Welsh slate, with two red-brick chimneystacks to the front and rear slopes of the gatehouse. Each of the malting buildings has a weather-boarded lucam projecting from its front slope, supported on the front elevation by wrought-iron braces. The walls are generally constructed of red brick laid in Flemish bond, of pier and panel construction, with wall-tie pattress plates dated 1846. The gatehouse has a large arch spanning its ground and first floors, and an oriel window over. Either side of the arch, flat-arched window surrounds with stuccoed lintels contain three-over-three timber sash windows. A half-glazed door to the north of the gatehouse provides access to Garrett House, and a half-glazed door to the south of the gatehouse provides access to Kiln House, both with stuccoed lintels. Both Garrett House and Kiln House also have a side door within the arch. The malting buildings each have a wooden external stair rising from the southern corner across its façade to a door at first and second floor levels. The north malting building has a substantial buttress to the north end of its front elevation. The malting buildings formerly had a window opening to each alternating bay, however windows were added to every bay in the early C21. The window openings are shallow-arched at ground and first floor levels, and flat-arched at second floor level; all windows were replaced in the early C21. To the rear of the front range, the two maltings extend east, double-pile on plan. Originally two storeys in height, the north range was extended upwards with the addition of a second floor and asbestos roof in the mid-C20, and the south range was extended with the addition of a mansard roof and dormer windows. The pier and panel walls are constructed of red brick laid in Flemish bond, and the courtyard elevation of the north range is supported by five substantial red-brick buttresses. The north and south ranges were converted to residential apartments in the early C21 to designs by Haworth Tompkins Architects, with external staircases added to the courtyard elevations and south elevation of the south range, providing access to accommodation at first floor level (a flood impact mitigation measure). The window and door joinery was replaced throughout at that time, and the ground floor of the north range was converted to retail use. The east ends of the north and south ranges each had large drying kilns, four in the north range and two in the south range, with steeply-pitched and hipped slate-covered roofs. The former kilns in the north range were converted in the early C21 to a plant room and store at ground floor level, with office space above.
The north-east corner of the quadrangle is occupied by a two-storey red brick industrial range, constructed in the mid- to late C19 (present on the 1882 Ordnance Survey map), probably as a malt store. It is rectangular on plan and has a hipped slate roof, red brick walls laid in English bond, and is approximately 9 bays in width. A pair of boarded taking-in doors survive on the first floor of the eastern elevation, but otherwise the fenestration is of late-C20 date. Its north elevation has a wide but now partially blocked arched opening at ground floor level.
The former kilns and malt store at the east end of the south range were converted to the Hoffmann Building and Jerwood Kiln Studio between 2005 and 2009 to designs by Haworth Tompkins architects. The south-east corner is occupied by a two-storey former malt store which now houses a foyer to the Jerwood Kiln Studio, with offices over. It has a steeply-pitched and hipped Welsh slate roof, and red brick walls laid in English bond. The north end of the malt store and the building between the north and south kilns were demolished and replaced by the Britten Studio around 2005, a purpose-built rehearsal hall designed by Haworth Tompkins, enclosing the west side of the quadrangle. The external form of the Britten Studio echoes that of the neighbouring kilns, with red brick walls laid in English bond, and a steeply-pitched hipped slate roof.
The main gate, dated 1859, is attached to the south side of the front range of the 1846 quadrangle, and was constructed as the principal entrance to the maltings for rail traffic arriving from the Snape branch line. Although the line ran right into the site, the engine stopped across the road, and trucks were hauled into the site by horses or ponies. The main gate is a three-bay three-storey structure, facing west to Snape Bridge Road, with a large arch to its central bay spanning the ground and first floors. Its pitched slate roof has crow-stepped gables to the north and south incorporating chimneystacks, and a central wooden bellcote. The walls are constructed of red brick laid in Flemish bond with a dentil eaves course; the front elevation has gault-brick dressings throughout. The front elevation has a shallow pier with gault-brick dressings either side of the arch, and the arch bears a central keystone with the initials ‘N.G.’ and date ‘1859’. The north and south bays either side of the arch have a single bay of windows, with a 6-light mullioned and transomed window to the ground, first and second floors. Over the arch, the second floor has two 4-light mullioned and transomed windows, with a mid-C19 clock between. To the right of the arch, the south bay has a shallow-arched door surround to Smugglers Cottage, containing a replacement panelled door. Within the arch, the north and south walls each have a single window to the ground and first floors, and evidence of at least one blocked window and door opening. On the rear (east) elevation of the main gate, the majority of the windows were replaced with timber sashes or casements in the late C20. North of the archway is a door to Malt Cottage, and south of the archway is a late-C20 stair to the Clock Tower cottage at first floor level.
Two malting buildings were added to the south of the main gate in the 1860s, and seven supporting red-brick arches were introduced linking the two malting buildings in 1874. Both 1860s malting buildings are rectangular on plan, three-storeys in height, have a shallow-pitched roof to their front range, and have pier and panel walls constructed of gault brick. The north malting building has a slate covered roof, with a timber-boarded lucam to its front slope supported by wrought-iron braces on the front elevation. It formerly had a wooden external stair which rose from the southern corner across its façade to a door in the uppermost floor, however this was removed in the mid- to late C20 and the scar remains visible. Extending east from the former barley store, is an eleven-bay three-storey former turning gallery; its roof is double-pitched with a corrugated asbestos sheet covering. Tripartite louvred window openings to alternating bays facilitated the ventilation of the germinating barley, and this fenestration remains unaltered. At its east end are two brick-built drying kilns which retain their steeply-pitched hipped roof structure with a Welsh slate covering; the remains of two cowls rise from the ridge. East of the kilns, a former malt store has lost it roof. It retains red brick walls laid in English bond, with six bays on its east elevation, including a door for unloading malted grain.
The south malting building is linked by seven red-brick supporting arches, dated 1874; the front arch facing Snape Bridge Road has polychromatic voussoirs. The south building also has a shallow-pitched roof, but with a corrugated sheet covering. The front elevation is symmetrical in appearance with nine bays, the central bay of which is taller with a water tower over. The central bay has three levels of taking-in doors, the uppermost one retaining a sack hoist mechanism. Original door and window joinery survive throughout the front elevation. The south and east elevations (overlooking Snape Bridge House and its gardens) are blind. The range to the rear has lost its roof and internal floors and is of lesser interest.
The 1885 barley store was added to the north side of the front range of the quadrangle in 1885, fronting Snape Bridge Road. It is a two-and-half storey building with a steeply-pitched Welsh slate roof having painted wooden dormers and wooden-boarded ventilators. The pier and panel walls are constructed of red brick, and a date stone to the centre of the front elevation records the date of construction ‘1885’. The front elevation formerly had a stair to a taking-in door at first floor level, however the stair was removed in the late C20 and the door replaced by a window. A late-C20 single-storey extension was added to the north gable in the late C20, linking it with a new barley store to the north dated 1952; the glazed link and the 1952 new barley store are of lesser interest. The rear elevation of the 1885 barley store has a late-C20 single-storey lean-to glazed extension and fire escape. The windows and doors have been replaced throughout.
INTERIOR:
The interiors of the buildings of the quadrangle have been adapted for various uses in the late C20 and early C21. The former gatehouse was adapted as two self-catering apartments, Garrett House and Kiln House, and no historic interior features of note survive. Within the north malting building, the second floor of the front range was adapted as offices, and the ground floor turning gallery was adapted for retail use. The first- and second-floor turning galleries of the north and south malting buildings were converted to residential apartments in the early C21 to designs by the architectural firm of Haworth Tompkins. The interior of the north kiln was converted to a plant room and storage space in the early C21, with a large commercial office over. The two-storey former malt store in the north-east corner was adapted for retail use in the late C20. The former kilns and malt store at the east end of the south range were converted to the Hoffmann Building and Jerwood Kiln Studio between 2005 and 2009 to designs by Haworth Tompkins architects. Entered from the south side of the former malt store, an entrance lobby with a pale chestnut strip ceiling provides access to a communal foyer, with a shuttered-concrete stair providing access to a mezzanine level. To the west of the foyer, the former kiln contains two rehearsal rooms at ground floor level, and the Jerwood Kiln Studio at first floor level, a double-height performance space open to the roof and with a capacity for 80 people. From the north side of the foyer, access is granted at ground and first floor levels to the Britten Studio, a rehearsal hall, also designed by Haworth Tompkins and completed in 2005. The Britten Studio has angled and graded aggregate walls to the lower part and angled timber panels to the upper part, designed to maximise the acoustic performance of the space, and features retractable tiered seating for up to 350 audience members.
The interior of the main gate was converted to three apartments in the late C20: Smugglers Cottage (accessed from Snape Bridge Road), and Malt Cottage and the Clock Tower (accessed from the rear). The apartments do not retain any historic features of note.
The interior of the 1860s malting buildings retains some former industrial features of note. The north malting building retains the only unconverted kilns on the Snape Maltings site at its east end. The pair of kilns are entered slightly below ground level and are split into two chambers. Each kiln stands centrally within its own chamber, and the hot-air chamber above is contained above a barrel-vaulted ceiling. The south malting building retains the only unconverted barley store on the Snape Maltings site in its front range. One store is divided into four room-sized grain bins, each a single bays width, and formerly filled from the floor above by chute holes in the ceiling. Another store retains two No 2 Boby industrial machines, probably installed around 1950. Access to the upper floors was not possible in January 2022.
The 1885 barley store was converted to retail use around 1990, when its internal floors were removed and a mezzanine level introduced.
