40-44 Whitefriargate, Hull, Kingston upon Hull, City of Kingston upon Hull

Summary

Former Marks and Spencer department store, 1931, designed by Norman Jones Sons and Rigby of Southport, extended in 1938 by the same architects. Further mid-C20 and early-C21 alterations. Stripped neoclassical style to Whitefriargate and Art Deco style to Alfred Gelder Street; the whole a single department store until 2021.

Description

MATERIALS: red brick, steel frame and concrete floors. Cast Portland stone masonry cladding with granite plinth to the south elevation and red brick with granite plinth and stone dressings to the north elevation. The south front's ground floor has bronze-framed shopfronts rising from granite plinths. 1930s steel Crittall windows.

PLAN: a three-storey block aligned east-west and fronting onto Whitefriargate that lowers to a two-storey polygonal building extending to, and facing, Alfred Gelder Street, all with a flat roof.

EXTERIOR:

WHITEFRIARGATE (SOUTH ELEVATION): the 1931 three-storey block (extended in 1938) facing south along Whitefriargate is clad in reconstituted/cast Portland or ‘Empire’ stone with a stripped neoclassical decorative scheme. The ground-floor shopfront has a long central and a small west end window showcase with grey-granite plinths and decorative bronze-framed curved corner window panels with top ventilation grilles and slender mullions. Between the window showcases, and to the west of the central showcase, are recessed entrances supported on a steel fluted column, which are set upon a granite base with late-C20 floor tiles and entrance doors. The eastern entrance has three doors set in wooden architraves with long margin lights between them and a single blind overlight above. The west entrance has an off-set boarded division separating three similarly-styled doorways and a 1930s wooden two-leaf panelled staff entrance door with an overlight. At each end of the ground floor are granite pilasters that support enriched brackets decorated with an extended acanthus leaf and a stylised square stop, and a moulded entablature with a rope border and a fluted band. Above is a two-storey seven-bay portico in antis with six giant fluted Doric columns and matching half-columns set within a moulded architrave with a panelled soffit. Either side is a narrow bay with a fluted second-story string band. Each bay has a large first-floor and smaller second-floor window, all with moulded surrounds, projecting sills and margin glazed metal-framed casement windows. The end bays have narrow windows and the portico in antis has iron work balconies to the first-floor windows with scrolled hand-rails and stylised fretwork. The upper floor is terminated by a decorative stepped parapet with a ship’s prow in the centre and Viking ships at each end which rest upon a wave-form band.

To the west of 40 to 43 Whitefriargate is the remaining half of a C19 brick building (formerly 43 and 44 Whitefriargate), which has been amalgamated into the building. It is a three-storey two-bay building with a mid-1980s shopfront, stringcourses to each floor, semi-circular keystoned windows, and a plain entablature parapet with a decorated bracket. It has a blind right (east) return and rear.

ALFRED GELDER STREET (NORTH ELEVATION): the 1938 two-storey block facing Alfred Gelder Street has red-brick cladding with Portland stone dressings in a pared back Art Deco style. The ground-floor shopfront has stone panelled pilasters (re-clad in the late C20) either side of a long five-light shop window and there are corner window showcases to the left of flanking recessed entrances. The window showcases all have a granite plinth and bronze frames and the recessed entrances have late-C20 doorways with plain surrounds and tiled entrance floors. Each entrance has a single outer granite pilaster that rises to support a plain bracket and an entablature, with a moulded stone string band extending across the ground floor. The first floor has seven-bays of windows with decorative recessed brickwork forming quoins. The windows are tall and narrow, and all have brick pilaster jambs terminated by stone square stops with a projecting stone sill, a blind stone top-light and Crittall glazing. To the west of these is a further three-bay blind range (housing two lifts and a motor room). It has a stone panelled plinth and horizontally-banded projecting brickwork to the ground floor and decorative brickwork forming tall blind and framed panels on the second floor. Attached to the east end of this range is a 1980s covered loading bay. The east and west returns are attached to neighbouring buildings facing Whitefriargate and Alfred Gelder Street.

The department store’s concrete-capped flat roof has been altered and extended from Whitefriargate to Alfred Gelder Street. The rear (north) elevation of the Whitefriargate range's third storey overlooking the main part of the roof has brick infilled concrete stanchions forming four bays with Crittall windows and an eastern late-C20 metal-framed door. It is accessed by a late-C20 caged ladder at the east end of the building.

INTERIOR: the ground and first floor shop floors, accessed from the entrances on Whitefriargate and Alfred Gelder Street, have been altered and modernised in the late C20 and early C21. Some 1930s slender cast-iron columns remain in situ, but the majority are covered with cladding, with utilitarian suspended ceilings above. The Crittall windows facing Whitefriargate and Alfred Gelder Street all retain their fixings, and utility cupboards across the building retain early-C20 Belfast sinks and some electric fittings.

The ground floor has five 1930s brick and concrete stairs that are separated from the ground-floor shop floor by later partitioning to allow for its separate commercial use. The public entrance stair and escalator, accessed from the eastern entrance on Whitefriargate, retain a brass handrail and cast-metal balustrade. In 44 Whitefriargate a 1980s stair rises from the ground floor to the roof, and a single-storey rear extension contains ancillary rooms.

On the first floor the shop-floor area is smaller with staff quarters in the three-storey block to the south and partitioned facilities to the east. The first-floor staff quarters (in the three-storey block) are accessed from a western staff stair from Whitefriargate and through 44 Whitefriargate. They comprise office rooms overlooking Whitefriargate that are accessed from a long east-west aligned corridor and retain C20 doors and radiators. The eastern half of the building is partitioned from the shop floor and contains toilets, store rooms, switchgear rooms, heating chamber, a large stock room with concrete pillars and four north facing slab-glass windows, and a control room with a Chubb and sons safe. In the north-east corner are two lifts.

The second floor contains further staff quarters, again accessed from a western stair and through 44 Whitefriargate, which are connected by an off-set east-west aligned corridor with a 1970s telephone booth. The north side of the corridor has toilets, a utility cupboard with a Belfast sink, and two small and one large room (former hairdressing, medical and changing room). The south side of the corridor provides access into a former cloakroom, kitchen and dining area (separated by a partial partition), and two southern rooms (a former manager’s dining room and training room). The rooms retain a range of mid-C20 to late-C20 fittings and fixtures, including architraves, doors and air conditioning grilles.

History

Marks and Spencer's origins lie in a 'penny bazaar' shop established in Kirkgate Market, Leeds in the 1880s by Michael Marks, which developed into a partnership with Tom Spencer in 1894. By the 1920s the firm was highly profitable and in 1926 public flotation raised sufficient capital for an ambitious programme of investment in new department stores and expansion of the existing building stock. In 1931 there were 140 stores across Great Britain, but between 1926 and the outbreak of the Second World War a further 218 new or rebuilt shops were opened and an equal number of existing premises were extended.

The former Marks and Spencer department store on Whitefriargate, Hull was constructed in 1931 to a classical design by the practice of Norman Jones Sons and Rigby of Southport. The architects Frank Norman Jones (1882-1956) and Leonard Rigby (1888-1970) designed several shops for Marks and Spencer in the 1930s and they continued to work for Marks and Spencer into the late C20. The site in Hull was purchased in 1930 to replace the former store’s penny bazaar in Hepworth’s Arcade, and originally covered the building plots of 42 and half of 43-44 Whitefriargate, leaving the truncated two bays of number 44 to the west, which remained as a separate shop. The store was formally opened on Friday 14 August 1931 with a sales floor on the ground floor and first floor, a dining room, cloakroom and lavatories on the second floor facing Whitefriargate, and a stock room on the third floor. A 1931 aerial photograph shows the new store’s irregular two-storey polygonal plan-form to the rear with glazed light-wells, and Marks and Spencer's archive photographs detail the original interiors.

In 1938 Norman Jones Sons and Rigby returned to Whitefriargate to extend and enlarge the store with the desire to retain its imposing uniform frontage. Originally it had a classical four-bay frontage facing Whitefriargate that extended 50ft in length. The store was extended in the same style by four bays to the west on Whitefriargate to occupy the plots of number 40 and 41 Whitefriargate. Substantial rebuilding, expansion and reorganisation took place with the original three-storey block facing Whitefriargate extended to create an L-shaped block with a two-storey extension at the rear and a new frontage facing Alfred Gelder Street. The considerable alterations can be seen in 1948 and 1952 aerial photographs, with the variable storey heights shown extending from Whitefriargate to Alfred Gelder Street.

Further expansion and additional storeys to the rear took place in the mid-C20, and between 1962 and 1975 the three-storey L-shaped block (used as staff quarters) was extended to create a square plan housing further staff facilities. Between 1980 and 1985 44 Whitefriargate was amalgamated into the building, with stairs and a lift giving access to the floors above. Further internal alterations (cladding and suspended ceilings) were introduced in the late C20 and early C21. Marks and Spencer vacated the building in 2019. The building is immortalised in Philip Larkin’s early 1960s poem ‘The Large Cool Store’, which references his visit to the Hull store when he was the University of Hull’s Librarian. A plaque commemorating the poem, and part of the Larkin Trail, was created and installed near the main lift.

Reasons for Listing

The former Marks and Spencers department store, 40-44 Whitefriargate, of 1931 and 1938 and designed by Norman Jones and Sons of Rigby, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* as a good example of a Marks and Spencer store by the firm of Norman Jones Sons and Rigby, who designed a number of stores for the company, and which reflects the strong signature architectural styles developed by Marks & Spencer in the early-mid C20 as part of an ambitious programme of investment and expansion that created landmarks in town and city centres;
* the building has striking and contrasting classical and Art Deco principal elevations that within a wider context mark the expansion and evolving architectural style of the department store;
* the plan form of the office and staff quarters on the upper floors facing Whitefriargate remains and illustrates the company's enlightened welfare policy towards staff, including the original provision of canteen, medical and hairdressing rooms;
* the building retains a number of original fixtures and fittings, including slender cast-iron columns, Crittall windows, some cupboards with early-C20 Belfast sinks, and 1930s brick and concrete staircases;
* it has strong group value with a number of listed buildings on Whitefriargate, which together combine to impart the historical character of this part of Hull Old Town.

Historic interest:

* as the department store immortalised by the poet, novelist and librarian Philip Larkin’s early 1960s' poem ‘The Large Cool Store’.

External Links

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.