Virginia House 5-7 Great Ancoats Street, New Cross

MANCHESTER - New warehouses and office accommodation is to be erected for Messrs. Gallacher Ltd  in Great Ancoats Street, New Cross. The architect is Mr. Charles Swain, 44 Brasenose Street.  [Architect and Building News 4 November 1927 page 741] 

The front elevation is of faience (buff semi-glazed terracotta) to resemble stone, with inset bronze panels below second floor windows. Egyptian decorative features. The building originally featured the Gallaher Trade Mark - a dog – above the parapet until its removal when the additional floor was added.

The business was originally founded by Thomas Gallaher in Derry, Ireland in 1857 and by 1896, he had opened the largest tobacco factory in the world in Belfast. The business was incorporated on 28 March 1896 to "carry on in all their branches the businesses of tobacco, cigar, cigarettes and snuff manufacture". 1932 Controlling interest acquired by Imperial Tobacco Co. After 1948 - offices of the National Assistance Board (later Ministry of Social Security). Gallahers also named their head office in Belfast “Virginia House,” presumably a reference to the source of their tobacco.