built in 1898 the two listed buildings at shrubhill were originally used as transport department workshops; an engine room and repairs workshop. they have an ornate industrial character with brick relief detailing and stone bands articulating a series of arched and circular openings which contribute a grand order to the otherwise plain, utilitarian facades,
the imposing single volume spaces convey, by their very emptiness, a sense of the vigorous mechanical activity now consigned to the past. in particular, the ornate cast iron colonnade which forms the spine of the former engine and winding room evokes a notion of the primary mechanical processes once contained in this space.
when the tram system was electrified, the cable winding gear was removed and the main hall was used as a repair and maintenance shop. a series of gangways were suspended from the roof structure on slender steel rods to form high level maintenance platforms throughout the workshops. the history of these buildings illustrates an ease of flexibility in their change of use and primary industrial age.
