A heritage plaque is being planned at the first site of Lancaster University which was also a furniture factory for Waring & Gillow.
A listed building planning application has gone in for a new green plaque on St Leonard's House on St Leonard's Gate in Lancaster.
The Grade II listed building was home to the former Gillows factory from 1881 to 1961.
It opened as the first site for the university in 1964.
The applicant is Lancaster Civic Vision.
"The Gillow (and then Waring and Gillow) factory links historically back to the West Indies mahogany trade, the epoch of the slave trade and plantations which provided the foundations for the expansion of Gillows into St. Leonard’s Gate from their initial workshops in Castle Hill," says a statement submitted to Lancaster City Council with the plans.
"Gillows were significantly sustained by trade with, and providing high quality furniture for, the colonists.
"Later, in the 20th century the factory produced furniture for cruise ships and during the two world wars aircraft parts were manufactured. The firm became a key part of the Lancaster economy for 200 years.
Below, St Leonard's House today
"Following the closure of the factory in 1961, the building was used by Universal Stores until the following year. By 1964 the building had been transformed to become the first site of Lancaster University. It had a regenerative impact on what had become a run-down area due to the decline of local industries.
"St. Leonard’s House - as a base for the new University- had a library, laboratories, a refectory, seminar rooms and social spaces. From 1966 the University departments gradually moved out to the current Bailrigg site.
"The current project is aimed at memorialising the historical importance of the building via a green plaque proposed for the wall to the right (as facing the building) of the main entrance."
The building is now used as student accommodation.
Green heritage plaques are used by local councils and societies to celebrate historic, notable or locally significant people, places and events.
Lancaster Civic Vision has for many years arranged for the erection of these plaques around the Lancaster District to commemorate prominent people and buildings.
Green plaques in Lancaster include at Bonnie Prince Charlie's lodgings on Church Street, the Assembly Rooms on King Street, the Royal Kings Arms Hotel where Charles Dickens stayed in the 19th century, and the birthplace on High Street of poet and scholar Laurence Binyon.
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