A settlement at the head of the Ardeer Peninsula, Ardeer is now part of Stevenston in North Ayrshire. The settlement began as a square of workers' cottages associated with the Prince of Wales Colliery, Ardeer Iron Works and Ardeer Chemical Works in the mid-19th C. It then became the site of the British Dynamite Company factory built by Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel in the 1870s, later operated by ICI. This explosives factory extended south to occupy much of the Ardeer Peninsula. The South African Pavilion of the 1938 Glasgow Exhibition, Africa House, was moved to this site where it remains. It was used as a staff restaurant. The factory outgrew its original buildings as the area became engulfed by nearby Stevenson but declined in the 1990s. Explosives are still made on a small part of the original site. Ardeer Primary School lies to the west on Clark Crescent.
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