Former Burton's Department Store and Offices, Numbers 34-35 Whitefriargate and 6-10 Alfred Gelder Street, Kingston upon Hull, City of Kingston upon Hull

Summary

Former Burton’s Department store and offices, 1936, by the company architects of Montagu Burton, with late-C20 alterations.

Description

Former Burton’s Department store and offices, 1936, by the company architects of Montague Burton, with late-C20 alterations.

(Formerly listed as 68 ALFRED GELDER STREET and 34 AND 35 WHITEFRIARGATE)

MATERIALS: steel and concrete frame, brick, with black emerald-pearl granite cladding and gold metalwork.

PLAN: a convex curved polygonal corner building, aligned north-west, with a south-west shop entrance.

EXTERIOR: the four-storey building has an extensive convex curved main (west) elevation facing Queen Victoria Square, a curved north elevation facing Alfred Gelder Street, a rounded south-west entrance elevation facing Beverley Gate and a south elevation facing Whitefriargate. It has a steel and concrete frame which is clad in polished black emerald-pearl granite, with moulded gold metalwork, which rises to a parapet concealing a flat roof. The windows are mainly white margin glazed metal-framed casements.

The extensive main (west) elevation has eleven narrow vertical bays across the upper three-storeys. The building's ground-floor has a continuous late-C20 shopfront and entrance, with an altered upper fascia, which wraps around from the south elevation to the middle of the west elevation. The northern half of the west elevation retains two original ground-floor shop windows (now - 2022 - blocked and painted), and the original granite pilaster office doorway to the left with plain glazed toplight. Further left (north) and curving around the north elevation to Alfred Gelder Street is a separate early-C20 two-bay shopfront with plain granite plinths and pilasters. Each shopfront has a moulded timber cornice and a retractable box blind and bronze box closer, and a bronze air grille cover. The north facing shopfront facing Alfred Gelder Street has three late-C20 curved windows with a triangular shaped mosaic floor set below, ornamented with a border and the lettering: LET / BURTON / DRESS / YOU. The shop-front to the right has an irregular two-pane window and shop doorway.

On the upper floors the west elevation’s three central bays form a frontispiece and are divided by two substantial gold faience pilasters with shaped caps and three windows to each floor; those to the second and third-floor have gold semi-circular cast-iron ornamental balconettes. Flanking on either side are four bays with four windows to each floor decorated with slim, recessed and decorated spandrel panels which mask the floor levels. At either end of the main (west) elevation is a single-bay canted corner, each with a convex curved parapet rising above. The first and second-floor windows share a moulded gold window surround, with a second-floor semi-circular cast-iron ornamented balconette.

The right (south) return facing Whitefriargate is of three bays and has matching fenestration to the west elevation: three windows to each floor decorated with slim recessed and decorated spandrel panels.

The rear (east) elevation is of red brick, the southern end abutting number 36 Whitefriargate, with six windows to each floor at the northern end.

INTERIOR: the concrete floors retain oak wood-block floor coverings (some concealed) and beamed ceilings on the upper floors, with the original radiators and heating system also in situ. Some panelled doors and moulded skirting survive, along with some sanitary fittings. A 1930s Art Deco metal cage lift and shaft, with an escape stair set around it, remains at the north end of the building with terrazzo flooring. The escape stair has curved stair treads and the lift entrances retain metal pedimented door surrounds with red metal signage on each floor.

History

Montague Burton (the ‘tailor of taste’) was one of the first chain stores and specialised in formal clothes for men. It became the largest men's clothing organisation in the world, offering quality clothes at the cheapest possible prices. The founder Meshe David Osinsky (1885-1952), a Lithuanian Jewish emigre who changed his name to Montague Burton, was a pioneer in the field of industrial welfare in an exploitative industry and was knighted in 1931 for furthering industrial relations and international peace. By the early to mid-1920s the retailer was erecting purpose-built department stores in a distinctive house style to designs by the Leeds architect Harry Wilson. An in-house architects’ department was set up around 1932 and led by Wilson until around 1937. The chain of shops expanded from 36 in 1919 to 595 by 1939. Burton would employ an estate agent to find suitable sites in prominent locations, ideally occupying corner plots such as this site identified and eventually acquired in Hull. The sites were inspected by Burton’s Deputy Manager, Archibald W Wansbough (1880-1961) or by Montague Burton himself.

The store at Whitefriargate was known as Burton Buildings and exhibits the typical late-1920s Burton house style. It opened on Friday 4 December 1936 and was artistically embellished with Art Deco features in a black and gold colour scheme, using gold metalwork and polished emerald pearl-granite from Fenning and Company of Hammersmith. The design, in both scale and presence, aimed to create a striking and glamorous landmark at the entrance to Whitefriargate, enhanced originally at night by the illumination of the outline of the building in neon. The ‘Chain of Merit’ ran along the top of the shopfront window panes, the links of which named the towns which hosted important branches, and the name of the firm appeared above the window on an illuminated emerald pearl-granite fascia. Burton stores carried little stock as customers picked a style from a catalogue and material from samples, and the suits were made in the company's model factories. The concrete-frame shop interior, with polished oak fixtures, wooden mantle cases and oak block flooring, was flooded with light from the curved elevation and included a showroom, measuring room and private fitting rooms. The upper floors were leased out as offices to generate revenue and were provided with a separate independent access in the west elevation, with an internal cage lift and wrap-around stair at the north end of the building. The upper floors were occupied for many years by Hull HM Customs and Excise, and also the local offices of the Ministry of Labour and National Service. Around 1988 the second floor was altered from offices to retail storage space, with some of the west (rear) elevation windows widened and the shop entrance doors replaced. Further alteration to the shopfronts was undertaken in the 1990s, with the insertion of new fascias, shop windows and shop entrance door on the south and west elevations.

In the latter half of the C20 Burton purchased, and merged with, various retailers to become the largest multiple tailor in the world. The group name became known as Arcadia Group from 1998 and was later sold into private ownership. In 2020 the group went into administration and Burton was bought by the online retailer Boohoo, with the closure of all stores.

Reasons for Listing

This former Burton’s Department store and offices, 34-35 Whitefriargate and 6-10 Alfred Gelder Street, of 1936 by the company architects for Montague Burton, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons.

Architectural interest:

* as a good quality example of a major inter-war chain of tailor’s shops in the Burton house style;
* as a distinctive and well-composed design artistically embellished in its entirety to create a striking and glamorous landmark at the entrance to Whitefriargate.

Historic interest:
* its association with Montague Burton, the owner of the largest men's outfitters in the world and pioneer in the field of industrial welfare.

Group value:

* as an early-C20 commercial building which makes an important contribution to the commercial streetscape with a strong group value with numerous surrounding listed buildings on Whitefriargate and the scheduled monument of Beverley Gate and adjacent archaeological remains.

External Links

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