Historic England date this building to c.1870, though others place its construction at an earlier date (mainly c.1850). It was known at this time as ‘the new filling hall’.

As well as being producers of vinegars, the founders of the company William Hill and Edward Evans also produced several types of alcoholic beverage

Although the smell of vinegar that once must have filled the air has long since departed, an excerpt from a 1903 edition of the Worcester Daily Times offers a sense of the scale of the industry taking place here:

‘The filling and dispatching room is an enormous hall…it is one of the largest single rooms in the kingdom…the great vats…are probably the most conspicuous and impressive parts of the equipment. One of these vats, standing among many of only slightly smaller size is 100 feet in circumference and 32 feet high having a capacity of 114,821 gallons.’

Local historian Mike Pryce informs us that Hill Evans & Co. originally had to seek an Act of Parliament to enable them to build a private railway connecting lines between the factory in modern St Martin’s Quarter and the main line at Shrub Hill (passed in 1844) – many readers will remember the fruits of this Act (with a deal of nostalgia) as the ‘vinegar express’. Pryce also claims that at one time this was the biggest manufacturer of vinegar anywhere in the world, at its height capable of producing 9000,000 litres of vinegar a year.

Not far from this building, within the modern St Martin’s Quarter is an architectural curiosity. With no plaque informing pedestrians what they’re looking at you could be forgiven for thinking it’s a half-finished modern art installation. In fact, what you’re looking at is the partially-reconstructed remains of Worcester’s last bottle kiln hovel. The kiln belonged to one of Worcester-s porcelain manufacturers – Grainger’s (established c.1804).

Anyone who remembers the ran-down and largely-empty industrial site prior to the development of St Martin’s Quarter may well recall the existence of a subterranean network of cellars. These were used at times for the maturing of British wines and, at one time, an air raid shelter.

If you trace the floor at St Martin’s Quarter, you can also see how the layout of former tracks used to move vats around the site (possibly also tracks from the old vinegar express?) are preserved in clever and tasteful paving patterns.

This location fact has been provided by Joe Tierney of Faithful History. To learn more stories of the ancient city of Worcester, spanning thousands of years of history in ‘The Faithful City’, visit https://www.facebook.com/faithfulhistoryworcester