A Son of the Rock

Opened in 1930 as a replacement for an aircraft factory and bringing much needed jobs to the area at a time of depression this must be the nearest equivalent in Scotland to the iconic Art Deco Hoover Building at Perivale in London but while the India Tyre Factory has some fine detailing it does lack most of the Egyptianate embellishments of the Hoover.

The tyre factory finally shut down in 1981 and lay empty for years.
However, the building has now been restored sympathetically, at least in its façade. Amazingly most of the windows here do not look out of place after the restoration. There is a closer up view here.

I’m not so sure about the modern extensions at the rear, but you can watch a video and see some of the remaining deco interior at the image gallery on this site.

Renfrewshire’s website gives a fuller history and shows the state of dilapidation the building had reached before the restoration.

Three more views can be found on this webpage.

It is just fantastic that a building like this, so redolent of its time, has been largely saved and found a modern use.