Report - Pilkington glass hq canteen - St Helens, Merseyside - March 2024

[MK83]

This former canteen sits on the site of the purpose-built former Headquarters site for Pilkingtons glass and was built between 1959-63 by Edwin Maxwell Fry of Fry, Drew and Partners.
The whole site is grade 2 listed, the listing states;

Architectural interest: it is one of the earliest and best-surviving examples of a greenfield headquarters complex, with a finely detailed design that successfully integrates a series of status buildings within a carefully designed landscape, and which was praised by both the architectural press and RIBA.

Design interest and innovation: the buildings' strikingly elegant designs utilise materials specially designed for superior functionality, including maximising light and reducing heat loss, as well as showcasing and advertising Pilkingtons' wide range of products.

This place has been posted quite a few times and has deteriorated somewhat since the last report but is still very photogenic. There isn't a massive amount to see but the architecture is great and extensive use of pilkingtons own products in the design is cool.

Shots of the canteen from the 1960's

The canteen now.

Thanks for looking.

 

[GRONK]

Looks like they’ve had a bit of a clean up since I was last there, nice work it’s a lovely building

 

[Calamity Jane]

I really like the design of this place. You've captured the beauty of it perfectly. Great opening shot, love reflections.

 

[host]

Great report. Love the old images too

 

[dansgas1000]

Always nice to see some of the older images compared to the current state of the place. Strange how they have cleared some of the vegetation. Top pics as usual!

 

[MK83]

Looks like they’ve had a bit of a clean up since I was last there, nice work it’s a lovely building

Thanks, yeah they seem to have stripped it a bit more and cut back some of the greenery in the little courtyards bits.

I really like the design of this place. You've captured the beauty of it perfectly. Great opening shot, love reflections.

Thanks, It's an interesting building, quite unique.

Great report. Love the old images too

Cheers!

Always nice to see some of the older images compared to the current state of the place. Strange how they have cleared some of the vegetation. Top pics as usual!

Thanks mate, Good thing about this place is there's plenty of old images and history knocking about online, it is odd that they've cut back one lot of greenery and left the other one.