Description

1900/1/10421 OXFORD STREET
21-NOV-08 (North side)
368 & 370

II
Shop, with facade of c1937 to otherwise Edwardian building. Minor later alterations to exterior and noted to have much ground floor internat modernisation in late-C20.

EXTERIOR: This stock brick building has an Art Deco style façade in white faience. The frontage is relatively unaltered and comprises a wide, two-storey shop front to the ground floor and first floor and a shallow, narrow and tall oriel to the upper three storeys. A flat parapet conceals the pitched slate roof of the Edwardian building. The shop front has a chrome surround with its original ceramic surround decorated with a blockish leaf-patterned border; glazing is modern. The oriel above has concave fluted sides in green tile, a solid balconette faced with white tiles in a swirling, geometric Art Deco design. The edged of the floor plates, which are visible through the window, are fluted.

The stock brick return to Gees Court, which has the red brick segmental arched windows and other dressings typical of an Edwardian building, belies the stylish 1930s façade.

INTERIOR: Not inspected but the ground floor interior, which is a shop, is noted to be largely a modern refurbishment and is not of special interest.

HISTORY: 368-370 Oxford Street is an Edwardian building which was refaced in the inter-war period. A photograph dating from after 1928 (it depicts the completed Selfridges building which was finished in that year) shows 368-370 Oxford Street with the same red-brick gabled frontage with stone dressings and bay windows as its present-day neighbours. Originally, the building was part of a block of shops dating to the first decade of the C20, a period when much of Victorian Oxford Street was redeveloped with larger premises; the block had previously contained four units.

The premises do not feature in the Post Office Directory for 1937, but in 1938 they were occupied by a costumier, Peter Bradley, who was still in business in 1946. It is possible that this hiatus represents the period when the shop was refaced. Re-facing was a more economical way of achieving the effect of modernity, and may have been commissioned by the costumier Peter Bradley before he moved into the shop. Certainly the large window would have displayed his wares to good effect.

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION: 368-370 Oxford Street is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* while this is a small building, the principal façade, clad in white and green tile with much decorative detail, has special architectural interest as an elegant and distinctive example of Art Deco design;
* now of some rarity in London's West End as a survival of a small retail building in this style

Reasons for Listing

368-370 Oxford Street has been designated for the following principal reasons:
* while this is a small building, the principal façade, clad in white and green tile with much decorative detail, has special architectural interest as an elegant and distinctive example of Art Deco design;
* now of some rarity in London's West End as a survival of a small retail building in this style

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q27087198

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

• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)
• 
  Gwent/Monmouthshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Wales)
• 
  Hampshire: Winchester and the North (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair by Hunt. Roger ( 2008 ) Hardcover
• 
  For the Record
• 
  Herefordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)