Description

869/0/10054 PARCHMENT STREET
26-FEB-02 2A
W H Smith
HIGH STREET
110
W H Smith

GV II

Shop premises. 1927; by J.W. Williamson, of Blount and Williamson of Salisbury for W H Smith. Chilmark stone ashlar and coursed rock-faced rubble, close-studded timber-framing and tile-hanging in gable. Clay plain tile roof with gabled ends and louvred ventilator on ridge.
PLAN: Open plan ground floor shop, originally with library at rear. Separate entrance at side to first floor dance hall/tea room, supper room and crush room. First floor now part of shop. Shop premises extended into former 1867 Masonic Hall at rear [N], which was originally a Wesleyan chapel and which was partly rebuilt late C20.
Arts and Crafts/Domestic Revival style.
EXTERIOR: 2 storey main range. Tile-hung south gable end to High Street with moulded bargeboards and lead drain-pipe with ornate hopper and cistern head on left. Wide 5-light oriel on brackets on first floor with small pane windows and shop front on ground floor with moulded lead fascia, on the rounded corner, corbelled above, the fascia has moulded lead coat of arms, bearers and ships; fascia continues on RH return facing Parchment Street with shields and five bowed shop windows with glazing bars, between ashlar piers. Close-studded timber-framing above to first floor with 5-light mullion-transom windows with leaded panes and casement stays; to right [N] twin gabled stone 3-storey range with flush frame windows with leaded pane metal casements and wide moulded 4-centred arch doorway on ground floor and lead down pipes with elaborate castellated hopper-heads. To right [N] 1867 gabled front of former Masonic Hall; flint with red brick and stone dressings, blocked pointed arch first floor windows and roundels above with carved stone Masonic symbols, and with late C20 shop on ground floor which continues on RH [N] return facing St George Street.
INTERIOR: Ground floor open plan shop without exposed features. Stairs at side rise to 5-bay hall open to timber hammer-beam roof with curved braces to collars, above which there are king-posts with curved braces to the principals and ridgepiece, moulded wall-plates and exposed purlins and straight wind-braces; plastered ceiling panels; the end gables have painted moulded plasterwork depicting, at one end King Arthur and the Round Table, and at the other end King Alfred in the Shepherd's Hut; both murals have rope borders, scabbards and trailing vines. On the side walls between the trusses are murals depicting William Wykeham building Winchester College, Sir Walter Raleigh, reindeer, oak trees, archers, a knight and a roundel of Philip II and Mary I, St Bartholomew and St Cuthlan; under the ridge is an elaborate cast-iron ventilator grille with trailing vine decoration. Plaster vaulted first floor corridor has moulded plasterwork.
The W.H. Smith bookshop combined with tea room/dance hall is an interesting example of this type of commercial building, well designed in the Arts and Crafts/ Domestic Revival style.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26641782

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.

Recommended Books

• 
  Lancashire: Manchester and the South-East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]
• 
  Sussex: West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Northamptonshire: Buildings of England Series (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  London 1: The City of London: City of London v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Yorkshire: York and the East Riding (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)