The ‘New Warehouse’ of 1905 represents a singularly sophisticated example of storage and three-way transfer. The red brick building was designed to straddle the interchange dock. Bridged over with heavy girders supporting the tracks and platforms of a railway goods shed, the barges and narrow boats below were accessed through trapdoors in the platforms. Canal to rail transhipment had by then much declined and the new building was mainly devoted to transfers between railway and road vehicles and to storage in the magnificent warehouse on three floors above.
The towpath crosses the Interchange Basin, known popularly as “Dead Dog Hole”, by a bridge dating from 1845 when the LNWR started planning its first interchange facility.
The LNWR created its first interchange depot in 1848, using a reversing spur from goods sidings to descend from railway level to its own dock (National Archives). Evidence of the reversing spur remains in a skewed arch under the NLR.
The interchange warehouse was rebuilt and enlarged more than once in the 19C, as seen in the section on W&A Gilbey.
A line of massive octagonal riveted columns runs down the centre of the canal basin which the Interchange Warehouse straddles. The dock could accommodate six barges or twelve narrowboats.
On the west side of the Interchange Basin are the Wine and Beer Vaults, while on the east side runs the basement warehouse. When the Interchange Warehouse was completed around 1905, Gilbeys used the basement under the east side of the warehouse as a bottle store. This survives but has been empty since the company’s departure in 1964.
The ground floor of the Interchange was open on the west side, where horse drawn vans and later motor vans were loaded under glazed canopies now removed. Transhipment was mainly between rail and road via a raised loading platform running through the building to the east side to which two rail sidings ran (David G Thomas, ???). Internal cranes and hoists allowed goods transfer between the storage levels and ground level. Doors to the storage areas are clearly seen on today’s west façade. External hoists were provided here under hoods, since removed.
The large hatch seen in the platform was for goods transfer by crane to/from the basement warehouse. The trapdoor above was for transfer between storage and rail wagons. The platform right was for inter-rail transfer.