20, GOLDEN SQUARE (See details for further address information), City of Westminster, London

Description

1900/0/10424 GOLDEN SQUARE
17-JUN-08 20
LOWER JOHN STREET
5-8

GV II

Former warehouse and offices, 1886, for the drapers and textile merchants Holland and Sherry by the contractors Holland and Hannen, who probably designed the facade. Minor refurbishment alterations in the second half of the C20.

EXTERIOR: the façade comprises an eleven bay frontage to Lower John Street and then, stepped back one bay as dictated by Wren's historic plot boundary, three bays to Golden Square. The building has three floors plus a basement and is constructed with gault brick with stucco or painted stone dressings. Most of the bay widths are narrow and the resultant close-spacing of the giant order pilasters creates a densely-articulated façade. The moulded brick panels in the upper pilasters and below the windows, the prominent moulded cornice dividing the two lower storeys from the third and the pair of cornices at attic level, both of which project in line with the pilasters, contribute to this rhythm as do the ball finials along the parapet. These details are muscular, as befitting the function of the building as a secure place for the storage of valuable cloth, associated with a prestigious company who supplied Savile Row. The facade is roughly symmetrical, despite stepping back at its northern end, and is terminated by slightly wider outer bays, those at No. 20 Golden Square reflecting the three-bay arrangement of the Georgian houses that the warehouse replaced. The use of a classical doorcase to the left of this section of the elevation also references the C18 character of the square: such features indicate that this is a design of sensitivity and subtlety. The elevation's central bay, in the section of the building on Lower John Street, contains a tall semi-circular arched window above the entrance, with leaded glazing, and is flanked by slightly wider pilasters. The entrance was remodelled in the second half of the C20 but the gap in the robust iron railings indicates this is an original entrance to the building. There is more delicate ironwork in the form of half-height grilles on the ground floor windows; these may be older features reused from elsewhere. Where the window joinery has been altered, for example the glass entrance inserted into the ground floor of 20 Golden Square, the original fenestration openings have been respected.

INTERIOR: the original function of the warehouse is readable in the surviving plan and historic features. The concrete floors, supported by cast iron columns with moulded capitals and girders, testify to the requirement for sturdy construction to allow storage on a large scale. The Goad insurance map (dating probably from the first half of the C20) identifies the second floor as having been offices and the extensive skylighting, with attractive moulding, on the third floor suggests that this was used for the inspection of cloths by buyers, as was the convention in such warehouses. There is a wide and robustly-detailed timber staircase with iron balustrade and moulded timber handrail at the rear of the building, which supports the idea that the upper floors were used for receiving clients. It is possible that there may have been a second original staircase, accessed from Lower John Street, where there is now a staircase dating from the C20 refurbishment; the tall window certainly suggests this has always been a stairwell. The wall dividing the sections of the building at 5-8 Lower John Street and 20 Golden Square appears to be original and the metal fire doors survive here. There are further skylights in the section of the warehouse at 20 Golden Square. The internal spaces have experienced subdivision and refurbishment, but the broad integrity of the structure remains intact with its purpose identifiable in the remaining original features of special interest.

HISTORY: The building replaced four Georgian terraced houses, similar to those which survive to its immediate north. It originally occupied a large plot stretching across the block to 7-8 Warwick Street (which runs parallel to Lower John Street) but this section was demolished in the last quarter of the C20. The Goad Insurance map identifies the plan and function of the building and shows that packing took place in the now-demolished section facing Warwick Street and the basement once contained hydraulic presses used to compress cloth into airless bales for safer shipping, long-term storage and security. The second floor was offices.

Golden Square was developed from 1675 on land leased from the Crown and the broad layout of the square was determined by Christopher Wren. The houses were complete by 1705, 'such houses as might accommodate Gentry', it was hoped, and for the first sixty or seventy years after its completion Golden Square was the residence of ambassadors, politicians and aristocrats. But with the westward expansion of London, the social elite moved to Mayfair or Kensington and by 1839 Golden Square had become 'a great resort of foreigners' according to Charles Dickens and the home of the professional classes. The next half-century saw a remarkable change in both the visual and commercial character of Golden Square as it rapidly developed as the centre of the woollen and worsted trade in London. This transformation was stimulated by the retail dominance, for clothes in particular, of Regent Street and Oxford Street over older centres such as Cheapside and Fleet Street. The names of many great department stores date from these years, which also saw the continued prosperity of smaller enterprises such as shoemakers and tailors, who colonised Savile Row from 1846. Golden Square was one of the most important addresses for suppliers to the trade and Holland and Sherry a prominent firm. Before 1914, nineteen of the thirty-nine domestic buildings in Golden Square had been replaced by large new office and warehouse blocks like this one to serve the ten woollen firms in Golden Square by 1880, expanding to forty by 1890 and seventy by 1900. Holland and Sherry moved here from headquarters on New Bond Street and stayed in Golden Square until c1970, sharing the premises with other woollen merchants and clothiers for some of this time.

SOURCES 'Golden Square Area: Introduction', Survey of London: volumes 31 and 32: St James Westminster, Part 2 (1963), pp. 138-145
Richard Tames, Soho Past (1994)

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION: The building is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* an architecturally vibrant and high quality industrial building of the mid-late Victorian period characterised by strong compositional qualities and robust detailing;
* one of the grandest of the Victorian warehouses in Soho, and in the palazzo-style that was pioneered in Manchester but is less common in London;
* the industrial character of the building has been preserved and, despite refurbishment, the façade is largely unaltered and the original plan and function remains readable throughout the interior;
* historic interest in the context of the commercial burgeoning of the West End in the C19;
* group value with the other listed buildings in Golden Square.
TQ2935280770

Reasons for Listing

The building is designated for the following principal reasons:
* an architecturally vibrant and high quality industrial building of the mid-late Victorian period characterised by strong compositional qualities and robust detailing;
* one of the grandest of the Victorian warehouses in Soho, and in the palazzo-style that was pioneered in Manchester but is less common in London;
* the industrial character of the building has been preserved and, despite refurbishment, the façade is largely unaltered and the original plan and function remains readable throughout the interior;
* historic interest in the context of the commercial burgeoning of the West End in the C19;
* group value with the other listed buildings in Golden Square.

External Links

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