Lomond Galleries

Location type

Works

Names and dates

Argyll Motor Works (1906-1914)
Munitions Factory [Alexandria] (1914-1919)
Royal Navy Torpedo Factory [Alexandria] (1937-1969)
Plessey (1971-1972)
Lomond Galleries (1997-)

Note: text in square brackets is added for clarity and was not part of the location's name.

Served by the Caledonian and Dumbartonshire Junction Railway.

Description

This factory was built for the Argyll Motor Company. A very fine set of offices formed a frontage onto North Main Street behind which was the factory itself. It is this frontage which remains today.

The works replaced another, the Baltic Works, in Bridgeton, Glasgow. The company name changed with, the move, having previously been the Hozier Engineering Co Ltd.

The Caledonian Railway had a publicity photograph showing one of their express engines photographed alongside an Argyll car. At the time, as John Thomas put it, 'Railway management found the early motor cars amusing'.

The Argyll Motor Company was to go bankrupt.

After closure of the motor works it became a munitions factory in the Great War.

After a period of little use it became a Royal Navy Torpedo Factory, to augment the Royal Navy Torpedo Factory [Greenock]. Plessey used the site for a year.

After another long period of little use the factory portion was demolished and the offices rebuilt to become a series of units for shops. The factory site was used for building a considerable number of houses.

The site was served by sidings from the Caledonian and Dumbartonshire Junction Railway.

Tags

Factory

External links

Canmore site record
NLS Collection OS map of 1892-1914
NLS Collection OS map of 1944-67
06/12/2021

Books


The Vanished Railways of Old Western Dunbartonshire (Britains Railways/Old Photos)