St. Andrew's Road: Boiler House No 2

The plans provide for the erection of an additional boiler house occupying a site approximately 75 feet square on the St. Andrew's Road site, opposite the Gas Works. Built of brick, the double span site and roof with patent glazing and ventilators houses six boilers and economisers.Read Hollidays expanded production to meet wartime needs, gradually taking over most of the available land in and around St. Andrew's Road. The company began on a site near the gasworks, where dyestuffs were extracted from waste coal tar products. With the outbreak of war in 1914, Read Hollidays converted the plant to the production of chemicals for explosives. During the Great War, in order to control supplies, British Dyes was established. This was later to become ICI. As the demand grew, all the available land on St. Andrew's Road was occupied by Hollidays or other manufacturers undertaking to supply the War Office. A new site was found further along Leeds Road, which allowed for long-term expansion, a site still occupied by chemical plant.