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Bromsgrove Guild [Canada] Limited Building([1910-1911]) [2070] Clark Street [456 Clarke Street], Montreal, QC, Canada Industrial, Factory [floors]; brick; frame Client: Bromsgrove Guild [Canada] Limited. Description: The Bromsgrove Guild of Canada was a subsidiary of the Bromsgrove Guild of Applied Arts, established in Worcestershire, England. It opened its Montreal studios and workshops at a time of intense collaboration with E. & W.S. Maxwell on major buildings such as the Saskatchewan Parliament (566), the Art Association of Montreal (273) and the Dominion Express Building (378). The Montreal premises opened in 1911 on Saint-Charles-Borromée Street (now Clark) on a site adjacent to the Joseph Binette Apartments (298), also designed by the Maxwell firm the previous year. The four-storey, flat-roofed brick building was a simple industrial loft with large windows. The ground floor, partially open to the yard, housed kilns, machinery and a timber store. The draughting room and the cabinetmakers (joinery) workshops occupied the first floor, along with offices for the Guild’s Manager, British architect E. Lance Wren. The cabinetmakers (furniture), carvers, upholsterers, painters and polishers were located on the second floor. The top floor was the domain of the plaster workers and model makers.
While the England workshop continued providing stained glass windows and draperies, the Montreal branch handled all plasters, wood and furniture commissions. It produced all models for decorations in wood, iron, bronze, plaster and stone and many furniture pieces for the Chateau Frontenac (319) in 1920-1924. The cabinetmakers were especially renowned and the most expensive in Montreal. They could provide their own designs for furniture, inspired by Italian, French and English models. However, in most Maxwell collaborations, they worked from the architects’ sketches. Holdings: Factory (3 floors); brick; frame | |
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