Fire at a Grade II Listed Kettering factory

Crews remain on the scene of a fire in Regent Street, #Kettering. Road closures remain in place and residents are advised to keep doors and windows closed against smoke. Please avoid the area while the fire is tackled. Read more here: https://t.co/s5drvZi4kO pic.twitter.com/Onsm6aU5aQ

— NorthantsFire (@northantsfire) May 13, 2019

Press reports describe it as the Kettering Bedding Centre, but Historic England know this building as the Regent Works, Regent Street. It was built for the boot and shoe firm Hales & Jowett in 1890.

It is Grade II Listed and that listing says:

This finely-detailed factory is little altered and the carefully detailed and homogeneous front shows it to be a factory but the design also fits into the terraces of houses either side and opposite. This combination of factories and housing adjacent to each other is a particular characteristic of the boot and shoe industry.

I took the photos below last June. If the building has to be demolished it will be sad loss.