Bata Settlement, East Tilbury (EHER 82461)

A self contained, compact and formally planned workers village associated with the British Bata Shoe Company factory at East Tilbury: 362 units of housing plus community facilities were built beginning in 1933-1935; with successive phases of building in 1936-38, 1939-1941, 1946-47, 1953-55, 1956-1959 and 1961-1963. The initial phases were flat-roofed modernist designs attributed to the Bata Company's Czech architects Vladimir Karfic and Fratizek Gahura. These houses were predominantly of concrete with internal brick walls and details, initially with Czech fittings. These continued to be built up until 1947. There were also rendered brick pitched-roofed houses built to the south of Coronation Avenue (between 1938-1955). Later phases built along Princess Margaret Road were a break with the pre-war modernist types, being narrow red and yellow brick semi detached houses. Community facilities included the former cinema, built in 1938, and now a village hall; the Community House built 1935-6, the Bata Hotel 1957-59 and a recreation centre and shops built in 1959. In 1955, a war memorial by Joseph Hermon Cawthra was erected to commemorate the war dead of the Bata Company. The original overall conception of the site was influenced by Czech variants on the Garden City movement, and was originally far more grandiose than what was actually achieved, with a theatre, dance halls, railway station and aerodrome planned but not built because of the changing fortunes of the company and the disruption of the Second World War. With the contraction of British Bata from the 1970s, the settlement was sold off in 1980.

The report is the result of an area appraisal carried out by English Heritage in 2006, prompted by plans to build large scale housing developments in the area of East Tilbury. The source contains numerous plans (including phase plans of the expansion of the settlement) and photographs, as well as a background history of the Bata Company. The settlement is a self contained, compact and formally planned workers village associated with the British Bata Shoe Company factory at East Tilbury: 362 units of housing plus community facilities were built beginning in 1933-1935 (this phase along Bata Avenue are now Listed Buildings); with successive phases of building in 1936-38, 1939-1941, 1946-47, 1953-55, 1956-1959 and 1961-1963. The initial phases were flat-roofed modernist designs attributed to the Bata Company's Czech architects Vladimir Karfic and Fratizek Gahura. These houses were predominantly of concrete with internal brick walls and details, initially with Czech fittings. These continued to be built up until 1947. There were also rendered brick pitched-roofed houses built to the south of Coronation Avenue (between 1938-1955). Later phases built along Princess Margaret Road were a break with the pre-war modernist types, being narrow red and yellow brick semi detached houses. Community facilities included the former cinema, built in1938, and now a village hall; the Community House built 1935-6, the Bata Hotel 1957-59 and a recreation centre and shops built in 1959. In 1955, a war memorial by Joseph Hermon Cawthra was erected to commemorate the war dead of the Bata Company. The original overall conception of the site was influenced by Czech variants on the Garden City movement, and was originally far more grandiose than what was actually achieved, with a theatre, dance halls, railway station and aerodrome planned but not built because of the changing fortunes of the company and the disruption of the Second World War. With the contraction of British Bata form the 1970s, the settlement was sold off in 1980. <1> Semi-detached houses. 1930-33. Designed by Vladimir Karfik and Frantizek Gahura, and built by various local contractors. Flat roofed. Hybrid construction with concrete poured in lifts of roughly one metre in height to front and side walls; interior partition and rear walls of brick faced with concrete. Two storeys and two-window range to the pair; rectangular bay to each sitting room; entrances on the returns with one small window to each floor. Four-window range to the rear. Stack to party wall. International Style. Nos 2-34 (even) Bata Avenue form group. <2> English Heritage has been asked to assess numbers 1, 15-17 and 31-33 Bata Avenue in East Tilbury for listing. The houses were built to accommodate the workers and their families employed by British Bata and are located immediately to the north-east of the factory complex. Designation was initially considered in1993 when nos. 2 to 34 Bata Avenue (excepting 20-22 which had been demolished) and factory Building 13, known as Trafalgar House, were listed in grade II. Concerned about the changes to the buildings in the Bata settlement, Thurrock District Council established a Conservation Area in 1993, within which Bata Avenue is located. The history of the Bata shoe company and its presence at East Tilbury is extensively covered in the Historic Area Appraisal. In summary, the Bata shoe company identified the historic riverside village of East Tilbury as a suitable place for the development of a Shoe Factory and purpose built settlement between the 1930s and 1960s. From modest origins, the Bata Company grew in the inter-war years of the 20th century to become one of the world's largest shoe manufacturers and retailers. Its founder was Thomas Bata (1876-1932) whose ancestors had been cobblers in the Moravian town of Zlin since the 17th century. He set up a shoe making business in 1894 using mass production methods and management theories derived partly from the Unites States and Germany. During the inter-war years the company expanded its retail outlets into many foreign markets, including England in 1924. By the 1930s, the Bata Company had become a world-wide shoe empire, co-ordinating its global activities, in particular all details of the shoe-making process and design of factory, domestic and community buildings, from the HQ at Zlin. It expanded its manufacturing sites globally including factories in Holland, India and East Tilbury (known as British Bata) in 1933. Architecture and planning were central to the evolution of the Company's identity from the 1920s, its approach developing from the precepts of the Garden City Movement combined with Modernist design and industrialised construction. By the early 1930s, Bata's architects F L Gahura (1891-1958) and his student V Karfik (1901-1996) had developed a consistent architectural design for Bata sites across the globe, based on the settlement at Zlin, taking elements of garden-city planning, such as central axis combining an open landscape with municipal and cultural buildings and placing the factory at the heart of the settlement. Domestic buildings were provided with space, sunlight and a garden, not just for philanthropic reasons, but also as an incentive to work hard for the company. Construction of the housing was concurrent with the first factory buildings, the first accommodation being completed between 1933 and 1935 on Bata Avenue. All buildings were constructed in accordance with designs from Zlin and the houses were finished with Czech fittings. From 1935, construction was undertaken by British Bata and the factory and housing estates continued to expand. Between 1936 and 1938, other social facilities including a cinema, community house, schools and farm were constructed, zoned within a planned settlement. Although WWII slowed development, the site continued to expand into the 1960s. From the 1970s, however, Bata gradually withdrew from the settlement and a number of social buildings were demolished prompting the designation of the Conservation Area. The domestic housing on Bata Avenue was the first to be constructed between 1933-34, with differing materials, plan-form and layout to the rest of the estates. A number of alterations have occurred to all of the buildings, including the replacement of fenestration and roofs. The buildings under consideration in this assessment comprise numbers 1, 15-17 and 31-33 Bata Avenue, built between 1933 and 1935 and designed by Karfik and Gahura, Bata's architects. The buildings are in a Modernist style and constructed from a mixture of concrete for the walls and roofs and brick for the square bay windows and internal walls. They are two storey, semi-detached and flat-roofed, arranged on a chequerboard plan, maximising garden spaces between the houses. Numbers 15-17 and 31-33 have bay windows at ground floor with a four light window above and main entrances to the side. Number 15 has the original entrance door and a later 20th century roof. Number 17 has replacement uPVC windows and plastic rainwater goods. Number 31 also has uPVC windows and a new roof. Number 1, originally a hostel for single workers, has been reworked to provide basement access and has a 20th century porch addition. It too has a flat roof and numerous two-light casements with replaced window frames. No interior inspection was carried out. Numbers 1, 15 -17 and 31-33 are all greatly altered externally; the remodelling and replacement of fenestration in buildings of such date and architectural treatment is of considerable weight when assessing suitability for designation. Smith, J 'East Tilbury Essex, Historic Area Appraisal' English Heritage Research Department Report series no. 21/2007. <3> English Heritage has been asked to assess the industrial buildings at the former Bata Shoe Factory, now known as the Thames Industrial Park, in East Tilbury. Since the factory ceased production, the buildings have been used as individual industrial units by small businesses. The plant at East Tilbury acted as both producer and distributor of the Bata products, primarily in the manufacture of rubber and leather footwear. Construction started after the death of Thomas Bata in a plane crash in 1932, when girders from Czechoslovakia were on site by 1932 and the first factory buildings constructed in January 1933. The initial building was a rubber factory (building 12), a spreading house and chemical mixing building (building 11b) and boiler house (subsequently rebuilt elsewhere on the site) and in 1934, a leather factory (Trafalgar house, building 13) was added. Construction of the housing was concurrent; the first accommodation being completed between 1933 and 1935 on Bata Avenue. All buildings were constructed in accordance with designs from Zlin, but from 1935, construction was undertaken by British Bata and the site continued to expand. Between 1936 and 1938, a second leather and rubber factory (buildings 24 and 34) were built as well as a garage and other social facilities and although WWII slowed development, the site continued to expand into the 1960s. From the 1970s, Bata gradually withdrew from the settlement and a number of social buildings were demolished prompting the designation of the Conservation Area and the listing of some buildings. Inspection of buildings 10, 11a, 11b, 21 and 22 indicates considerable alterations including the replacement of the roof structures of numbers 10, 21 and 22 and replacement of fenestration and additions to 11a. The buildings under consideration are numbers 10, 11a, 11b, 21 and 22 of the former factory, built between 1933 and 1939, probably designed by Kaflik and Gahura, and are the earliest shoe production buildings on the site. Numbers 10, 11a and 21 were built between 1933 and 1938 to the same design as the first of these buildings, a rubber factory (building 12) erected in 1933. At 262ft long and 62ft wide, the buildings have welded steel columns and roof trusses with reinforced concrete walls and welded Crittall sash side lights or casements. Building 11a has altered openings, replacement fenestration and additions. The roof structure comprises diagonal struts in two shallow 'v' shaped sections, similar to building 12 and the likely original roof configuration. Buildings 10, 21 and 22 have Crittall windows with flat glazing bars, but alterations to openings and a shallow gable roof structure, similar to building 23 (constructed in 1950s), suggesting that their roofs may have been rebuilt then. Building 11b is attached to 11a and at three storeys high and 3 bays squared was a former chemical mixing house constructed between 1934 and 1938. All of the exteriors are extensively glazed; the panels formed by external framing filled with steel-framed windows and painted brick. None of the other buildings retain any evidence of the processes they contained or machinery used in shoe production and a degree of remodelling has occurred in all. Buildings 10, 11a, 11b, 21 and 22 have value as part of the industrial setting at East Tilbury, and as examples of the Bata designs for industrial buildings of Karfik and Gahura. They are early examples of welded-steel construction, but not the first surviving example of this innovative construction technique in the country, which almost certainly is Building 12 on the same site. The continual use of the buildings has ensured that evidence for the processes which were undertaken in each building, and thus their processual relationship with each other, has been lost and no evidence of machinery or power delivery associated with their original uses is apparent. Furthermore, all of the buildings have been altered, and while it is expected that a degree of alteration is inevitable in industrial buildings as technological progress requires adaptation of existing building stock, the loss of the original roof structure in some buildings, additions, remodelling and inserted openings, diminish the significance of the buildings and overall reduces their claim to special interest. <1> Additional reference <4>