Qualla: Portland Works https://qualla.com/portland-works en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:15 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/q/z/portland-works-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Portland Works https://qualla.com/portland-works Portland Works: Introduction https://qualla.com/portland-works/ Photo credit Richard Newall, CC BY-SA 2.0. Stand in the courtyard of Portland Works on Randall Street and you can hear the building working. There is hammering from a forge to your left. The soft buzz of a guitar luthier's belt sander upstairs. From a far doorway, the unmistakable sound of someone steeping juniper berries for a small-batch gin. Around 30 small businesses share these 2,600 square metres of brick workshops and offices, gathered around the octagonal chimney that has stood since J.H. Jenkinson designed this place in 1877. Cutlery is still made here. So is jewellery, furniture, photography, theatre, art. In 2013, when developers wanted to convert it into flats, the workers and their neighbours pooled their savings and bought the building themselves.

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Image: Richard Newall | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/q/z/portland-works-wp/gcqz-portland-works-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Portland Works: Brearley's Knife https://qualla.com/portland-works/ Photo credit Elliotmshef, CC BY-SA 3.0. In 1913, a metallurgist named Harry Brearley working at Brown Firth Research Laboratories was looking for a steel that would resist erosion in gun barrels. While experimenting with chromium additions he noticed that one of his rejected billets, left in a yard, refused to rust. He...

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Image: Elliotmshef | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/q/z/portland-works-wp/gcqz-portland-works-brearleys-knife.mp3 0:06 2 full Portland Works: Workshops Around a Courtyard https://qualla.com/portland-works/ Photo credit Paulcate, Public domain. The building's design was a Sheffield archetype. Three two- and three-storey ranges of red-brick workshops, offices and showrooms enclose a courtyard with an octagonal chimney at its centre. Each range was further subdivided into small workshops rented out to individual masters a...

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Image: Paulcate | Public domain

]]> Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/q/z/portland-works-wp/gcqz-portland-works-workshops-around-a-courtyard.mp3 0:06 3 full Portland Works: The Save Portland Works Campaign https://qualla.com/portland-works/ Photo credit Chris Allen, CC BY-SA 2.0. By 2009, with Sheffield's industrial buildings vanishing fast, an outside developer applied for planning permission to convert Portland Works into residential flats. The existing tenants - cutlers, engravers, artists, knife-makers - faced eviction. They organised. The 'Save Portl...

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Image: Chris Allen | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/q/z/portland-works-wp/gcqz-portland-works-the-save-portland-works-campaign.mp3 0:06 4 full Portland Works: What a Living Factory Sounds Like https://qualla.com/portland-works/ Photo credit Neil Theasby, CC BY-SA 2.0. Since 2013, volunteers have been slowly restoring the works, retaining as much original fabric as possible - pitch-pine window frames, hand-forged window catches, lime-mortar pointing on the brick - while adding modern essentials like roof insulation and fire alarms. A Heritage L...

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Image: Neil Theasby | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/q/z/portland-works-wp/gcqz-portland-works-what-a-living-factory-sounds-like.mp3 0:06 5 full