IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Main Street, ALEXANDRIA, G83 0UG

Housed in the former Argyll Motor Works is some cut-price shopping near the banks of Loch Lomond.

Front facade of the building.

The part of the building on which this detail appears can be identified, just left of centre, in a view of the Image as a whole.

This grand terracotta building on Alexandria’s North Main Street is a Category A listed building. It was originally built in 1905 as a factory for the Argyll Motor Company and was said to be one of the largest motor-car factories in Europe when new. Car manufacturing continued in the factory until 1914, when it was sold to the Royal Navy for use as a munitions factory and torpedoes were manufactured here during the Second World War, giving rise to its local nickname of “the Torpedo Factory”. In recent years, the building has been operated as a Factory Outlet Centre (The sign at the front reads “Loch Lomond Galleries Shopping Centre). The long wall nearest to the camera is just a façade; there is no building behind it. See Image] and Image] for closer detail. For more information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argyll_(car) Argyll cars (Wikipedia) http://www.scotlandsplaces.gov.uk/search_item/index.php?service=RCAHMS&id=42488 – Scotland’s Places http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/sc-127-alexandria-north-main-street-argyll-motor-w - British Listed Buildings

Structures supporting areas of the Argyll Car Factory, Alexandria

The area at the top let corner of the arch shows where the roof of the main factory was which has now all been pulled down

The plaque is located at the top of the marble staircase (see Image), and records the official opening of the building as Loch Lomond Factory Outlets. For the whole building, see Image and Image Click on the end-note title for other views.

See Image for a view from a different angle, showing almost all of the facade. The building is also shown at http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1071200 and http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1071228 Construction of the Argyll Motor Works began in April 1905, and the building was opened in June 1906. The owners went into liquidation in 1914, but in October of the same year, the building reopened as a munitions factory. After the First World War, it long remained empty, but in the 1930s it was taken over by the Admiralty; by 1939, torpedoes were being fully manufactured here; locally, the building is often referred to as the Torpedo Factory. After the war, the building was briefly used by Plessey Ltd, a phase of ownership which ended with an industrial sit-in. A far more detailed account of the building's history, and details of the kind of torpedo production carried out here, can be found in James Chirrey's booklet "The Royal Naval Torpedo Factory, Alexandria" (1994), which covers the periods described above. More recently, the former motor works has become the Loch Lomond Factory Outlet Centre. The left-hand third of the photo shows part of a long facade that has no other structure behind it, but the remainder of the building is still in use.

As http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1071228 shows, this unusual but appropriate detail appears above the main entrance, on the clock-tower of Image (see that item for further information).

The facade of this building is beautiful. Made of red sandstone, it is indexed on the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland. It is the site of the Argyll Car Factory and although it is listed, there was lots of greenery growing from various parts of the tower and whole building. This factory was at one point producing more cars than any other in Europe although its life as a car manufacturer was not long (1905-1914) having many difficulties. It then began a new era of its life producing munitions for WWI and was known locally as 'The Gun Works' although none were produced there. Later still, in 1933 it produced torpedoes for the Admiralty. Interestingly, one of the apprentice mechanics in 1907 was none other than John Logie Baird. http://www.scotiaweb.co.uk/argyll/