Description

1676/0/10014 VICTORIA ROAD
01-SEP-03 Wilkinson's (formerly Binns Department
Store)

II
Shop and furniture store. c.1900. Possibly designed by W Basil Scott (engineer) for Gray, Peverell & Co. Ltd. Partly steel-framed, red brick with faience dressings and slate roofs. 3 storey. Moulded first and second floor faience bands.
Main east front has 6 windows. Ground floor has bronzed metal window frames and a bricked up corner doorway to the right. Above 6 large windows all with 3-light cross casements and flanking rusticated half-pilasters. The single outer windows have flat-headed faience surrounds with keystones and the 4 central inner round-headed windows also have keystones. Above again central 4 small windows have faience surrounds under a broad shallow pediment. Either side are set-back similar windows with faience balustrades to the balconies. Each of these outer windows is topped by a square lantern tower with a lead pyramidal roof. These towers have pilastered corners and circular faces those on the right with clock faces, those on the left with windows.
North front has 25 windows arranged 3:5:17. The ground floor has bronzed metal shop-windows and a bricked up doorway at the right corner. The 3 window section to right has similar fenestration to the east front topped with a faience balustrade. The next 5 window section has 5 tall sash windows in moulded faience surrounds with keystones and above 5 smaller sashes in moulded faience surrounds. Above a deeply moulded brick eaves band with faience brackets and 5 dormer windows with open pediments and sashes. 17 window section has flat roof with low parapet topped with plain faience coping. The fenestration is similar to the 5 window section though the windows are divided into pairs by plain timber panels which hide the steel frame which supports this section of the building, there is a single window at the right and another single window on thw curved corner also flanked by timber pilasters hiding the steel frame.
West front has 5 similar windows, over late C20 shop fronts, again divided by timber pilasters which hide the uprights to the steel-frame.
INTERIOR retains a complete set of original steel upright supporting the steel-frame.
This building is an impressive example of late-Victorian commercial architecture and one of the very earliest examples of a steel-framed building constructed in Britain. It may even be the earliest steel-framed building in Britain which W Basil Scott [engineer] at one time claimed he had constructed in West Hartlepool in 1896, but unfortunately no serious documentary evidence has as yet been uncovered to confirm or deny this claim.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26669986

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

• 
  Liverpool: Pevsner City Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Hampshire: South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Suffolk: West: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Kent: North East and East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Norfolk 1: Norwich and North-East: Norwich and North-east v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair by Hunt. Roger ( 2008 ) Hardcover