Description

SP 7560 SE NORTHAMPTON GUILDHALL ROAD
(East side)

4/10027 Number 27

II

Commercial building. c1936. with mid C20 alterations. Designed either by F A Gotch or L G Ekins. Steel-framed with faience tile cladding. Flat concrete roof and hipped slate roof. with tall square brick stack at south-east corner. 3 storey plus basement. All windows are original metal framed casements. North-west entrance corner has conical glazed staircase tower with chamfered entrance and plain veneered outer doors and inner glazed doors under plain hood. Above tower has 5 vertical strips of 8 window with faience tile mullions and transoms. West front has sloping basement with 8 small windows and beyond 2 inserted doorways. beyond to right an entrance with recessed doorway and single flanking windows. Upper 3 stories with 13 windows in vertical panels with painted metal panels between. All these windows divided by and edged by projecting faience tiled surround with decorative moulding. Similar single window panel to right rising through 3 floors. North front has 2 storey facade with curved corner to left. 2 rows of strip windows in raised faience surrounds topped with a plain parapet, set back upper floor has 6 cross casement windows. East front has sloping basement with doors to left and 10 graduated windows. Central single storey section has eight 3-light casement windows in single strip with flat parapet, behind and above 2 similar storeys also with 8 windows each. Either side 3 storey wings that to left with 2 windows and that to right with 3 windows set in vertical panels with raised faience surrounds. INTERIOR has staircase and hallway with terrazzo floors. Hallway has 2 serpentine steps, and stairs have two curved flights to each floor with continuous metal balustrade. Top floor has reception area with mosaic tiled floor and single doorway. South end has lift shaft with original doors and door surround. This is an unusual and well preserved example of a Thirties commercial building. Gotch was a significant local architect of the period, but the building has also been attributed to L G Ekins. the inventive northern architect to the Co-Operative Wholesale Society through the 19305. The stairtower is strongly reminiscent of that by Adler and Sullivan at the pioneering Carson Pirie Scott department store, Chicago, as well as of the work of Erich Mendelsohn in Germany and at the De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill (Grade I).

Listing NGR: SP7562560286

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26607903

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.

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