Adams Building, Nottingham

Opened on 10 July 1855, the building is named after its original owner Thomas Adams (1807–1873), a Victorian industrialist with strong Quaker views and a deep social conscience.

He selected the Nottingham architect Thomas Chambers Hine[1] and between them, they created a building which, for a variety of social and architectural reasons,[why?]

The main display area seems to have been a two-storey lightwell in the centre of the building (now closed up), originally lit by decorative gas lamps; approached by a grand staircase.

A large area of the basement (now Floor B) was designed as a chapel (with a company chaplain and vestry) where more than 500 workers and managers would take part in a service before starting work.

Indoor toilets, washing facilities and tea rooms were provided for staff, and there are records of a sick fund, savings bank and book club.

Extra steam engines were installed to serve these new blocks, and massive cast-iron doors fitted at intersecting walls to prevent the spread of fire.

[citation needed] Over the intervening years many alterations were made, including the addition of new goods lifts, the replacement of the original boiler chimney, the removal and insertion of staircases, and internal conversions.

On St Mary's Gate, the decorative turret and clock tower above the main entrance stairwell was replaced by a lift motor room crudely built in brick.

In the 1980s and early 90s, the Adams Building was in a serious state of decline, due to rising repair costs, outdated standards of workspace, and under-occupation.