Tate and Lyle Sugar Silo

In the 1950s, the food company Tate and Lyle ran into problems with their sugar refinery facilities in Liverpool. The sites were outdated and inadequate for the amount of sugar that they were attempting to import. To deal with this, the company commissioned the design and construction of a new state-of-the-art facility to store the sugar.  Construction began in 1955, and it operations started in 1957.

The new sugar silo was truly innovative for its time. The building, which was shaped like a parabolic tunnel supported by multiple external ribs, was made of reinforced concrete with a pre-stressed concrete floor.  The interior was a single large space with an area of 86,000 square feet that could hold up to 100,000 tons of sugar. Sugar was transferred into the silo via a conveyor belt running along the top of the building, and was transferred out via a channel in the building’s floor.

Tate and Lyle continued to refine sugar at the Liverpool sugar silo until 1981. Since then, the building has been used for other purposes, such as storing animal feed, as well as a concert in 2003. It now stands abandoned.  English Heritage have recognized the historical and architectural importance of the silo, and it is Grade II listing, which ensures that the building will not be demolished. Although the future of this once innovative brutalist structure seems unclear, it still attracts urban explorers and architecture aficionados interested in one of England’s most unusual brutalist buildings.