The former Woolworth Building, Upper Precinct, St Michael's, Coventry

Summary

A department store and parade of shops, designed and built for Woolworth by their staff architect, Harold Winbourne in 1952-1954.

Description

A department store and parade of shops, designed and built for Woolworth by their staff architect, Harold Winbourne in 1952-1954.

MATERIALS: reinforced concrete frame and floors. The exterior has red Blockley City mixture brick laid in English bond with stone and Westmorland slate dressings.

PLAN: the building has four storeys to Market Way and the fall in land allows for a further storey to the rear and along the approach to the Lower Precinct. The principal premises - now Boot's, but originally Woolworth's has a shop front facing north and the eastern front, facing Market Way, has a number of different shop fronts which were intended to be sub-let. A further shop floor for Woolworth's, including a cafe at first-floor, balcony level was entered from the southern end of the eastern side, facing Market Way.

EXTERIOR: the north front is symmetrical to the upper floors, with five bays facing the approach to the Lower Precinct. At ground floor level are plate glass shop windows divided by piers clad in Travertine Marble. A concrete canopy with Westmorland slate fascia runs along both the north and east street fronts of the building. The three central bays are slightly sunk and form a single unified panel for the upper three floors, divided by emphatic mullions clad in Westmorland slate and with light-coloured spandrel panels between the floors. Individual windows have seven lights and cast metal surrounds. To either side of this central feature are square windows with projecting stone surrounds.

The east front has a similar arrangement, with a large central window panel of six bays. To the right of this are windows with stone surrounds. The two top-floor windows here are larger, with paired sets of glass doors, divided by a mullion which is cased in Westmorland slate. In front is a balcony with iron balustrade, supported on concrete brackets. To the left of this the block continues with a prominent bay which projects forward and is bordered by a projecting stone surround. It has stone-framed windows to each floor. At left again are ten bays set close together with casement windows, which have been replaced by uPVC frames to the second and third floor levels, where an eleventh window bay has also been added.

The south face has, at ground floor level, a shop entrance at far right and a service door to the left with four, paired, horizontal slit windows. Above this are eleven closely-set bays with casements, which have been replaced with uPVC substitutes to the two upper floors. At far left is a vertical staircase window of glass bricks with sunken panels of ashlar between the floors. The west front faces onto a service yard and has a similar staircase window to the far right. At left of this are twelve bays of closely-set windows with uPVC substitutes to the upper floors, as before. At ground floor level are loading bays and service doors with horizontal slit windows. At far left, and flush with the rest of the front, are four bays which rise above the previous level to form a service tower. Fenestration here is paired casements flanked by staircase windows. The top of the tower has an extra floor of windows and a blind attic storey.

INTERIOR: the basement level throughout the building, and ground floor levels of the present Boot's store, have been re-fitted and there is no obvious trace of the earlier history of the building at these levels. The ground and first floor levels to the south of this, which are now let to Poundland, were formerly a double-height sales floor for Woolworth's, with a cafe at first floor balcony level. The approach to the balcony is by an imperial staircase which is circular in plan, with a central lower flight dividing at the landing and then continuing as two curved flights. A further dogleg staircase has a similar, moulded metal balustrade with brass handrail. The boldly-moulded ceiling above the sales floor has large-scale, curved decoration and moulded ventilation grilles. The three upper floors at the northern end of the building have offices at the front, looking north, over the Lower Precinct. Behind these the floor space is used for storage and is minimally fitted out with exposed brick walls and concrete beams. Service lift openings and marks on the beams on the top floor show that this lofty storey previously had a mezzanine level which has now been removed. To the southern end of the building the upper floors have been converted to form student accommodation, marked on the exterior by the replacement uPVC windows.

History

The city of Coventry became a centre for engineering at the start of the C20, particularly cycle and motor car manufacture. Many of the most notable English car makers had their base in the city. This rapid influx to the centre of a medieval city with a pattern of narrow streets caused problems and the city engineer, Ernest Ford built a southern bypass and laid out Corporation Street and Trinity Street near the centre in the 1930s. Plans for rebuilding the area around the cathedral to form a civic centre were revealed in an exhibition, ‘Coventry of Tomorrow’ of 1939-1940, but the major air raid of 14 November 1940 destroyed large areas of the commercial centre of the city and led to a more comprehensive assessment and plan for the city’s future requirements. The city architect, Donald Gibson, who was appointed in 1939, outlined a new, zoned plan in 1941 which included a large shopping centre to the west, built around a central axis which was aligned on the tower of the old cathedral.

The size of what was planned initially caused some concern to the city’s Chamber of Commerce and to the Ministry of Town and Country Planning, which would authorise loans for compulsory purchase of land and development. The city plan was refined during the 1940s and a version, which was close to what was eventually built, was shown in the exhibition, ‘Coventry of the Future’ in 1945. This drew large crowds and general admiration which, in turn, prompted the Ministry to authorise grants to purchase and develop 274 acres in June 1947. The final plan was approved in 1949, but by this time work had already started on site; the Levelling Stone was placed on Victory Day in 1946 and Broadgate landscaped in the following year. On 22 May 1948 Princess Elizabeth opened Broadgate Square and laid the foundation stone of Broadgate House, the first building of the new city centre.

The Woolworth Building was designed by Harold Winbourne, the Woolworth's staff architect, and built in 1952-1954. It was the earliest part of the Lower Precinct to be completed and amongst the first of the precinct shops to open its doors to the public. Woolworth were firmly in favour of the new precinct and prepared their own scheme for the shopping centre with below-ground servicing (see SOURCES, Gould report, 2009). External photographs show that the ground floor with shop premises was finished first, together with the first floor. The upper storeys were added shortly afterwards. The Woolworth frontage faced north, towards the approach to the intended Lower precinct. The corner site and the units along the northern end of the flank, facing Market Way, were sub-let to a variety of different retailers at its northern end with a further Woolworth's shop front at the southern end of the Market Way frontage. The block was prominently identified as 'THE WOOLWORTH BUILDING' on its north front.

Woolworth's closed in 2009 and the northern shop premises were converted to use by Boot's the chemist. The southern part of the Woolworth's premises, with a front onto Market Way, was converted to use by Poundland.

Reasons for Listing

The former Woolworth Building, Smithford Way, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* the store is an accomplished example of a post-war commercial building which has clear group value with the other structures of the Upper and Lower Precinct in Coventry including Broadgate House (Grade II);
* it includes a rare and relatively complete double-height sales floor of this period, with balcony, staircases and original, large-scale ceiling mouldings.

Historic interest:

* the store is a prominent part of the pedestrian Precinct development in Coventry, the first such planned development in England;
* the survival of the two-storey sales hall with its balcony gives a clear impression of the post-war appearance of the once-ubiquitous Woolworth chain of shops;
* as a clear assertion of the spirit of the vibrant and re-born city of Coventry after the damage which it suffered in the Second World War.

External Links

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