36-40 Market Street, Leicester, City of Leicester

Summary

Shops designed by Isaac Barradale in 1880 and 1883.

Description

PLAN: the buildings occupy the corner of Belvoir Street and Market Street with a longer frontage facing south-west onto Market Street.

EXTERIOR: the shop fronts have plate glass windows, mostly with slender pilasters and moulded capitals, dating to 1963. It is possible that underneath the wide fascia board, an earlier fascia board and a wide strip of square leaded lights may survive.

40 Market Street, occupying the corner of Market Street and Belvoir Street, is in a flamboyant Jacobethan style. It is constructed of ashlared stone with stone dressings and a pitched, tile-clad roof. The four-storey building has four bays on the left and three bays on the right, and is dominated by a double-height bow window at the corner with a central Gothic canopied statue niche. It is surmounted by an oversailing triangular gable with bargeboards supported by sandstone columns. The entrance below has two heavy Gothic arches with a large roll moulding in banded red and white stone, supported by a wide corner column in polished red marble on an octagonal base. The frieze above is partially pulvinated, giving the impression that the bow window is in fact two oriels. The extensive fenestration consists of mullioned and transomed windows of diamond section with mostly six lights on the first floor and four lights on the second floor, some containing small square leaded lights. A moulded string course runs at second-floor sill level, and in between the windows are three carved stone tablets bearing cusped arches and the words GRESHAM BUILDINGS AD 1883 and the initials RA (for Richard Allen). On either side of the prominent corner gable are smaller gabled dormers with decorative bargeboards and drop finials. On the right hand side there is a small, three-light flat-roofed dormer wholly within the roof space; and on the left a continuous flat-roofed dormer which contains some small square leaded lights. This was added in 1925 to provide a hairdressing department.

Adjoining this to the left is 38 Market Street, a three-storey building with an attic, constructed of buff-coloured brick laid in Flemish bond with stone dressings. The two-bay elevation is lit on the first and second floors by pairs of two-over-two pane horned sash windows set in stone surrounds with a central mullion and moulded lintel. It has a plain stone band at second floor sill level and a moulded stone eaves cornice. The second floor is slightly recessed, creating panels between, and at either side, of the projecting windows which are pierced along the bottom with stylised lancet openings. The attic is lit by a row of flat-headed dormers which is a continuation of the dormers on the Gresham Building.

To the left is 36 Market Street which is in the Domestic Revival style. It is constructed of red brick laid in English bond with brick dressings and has four storeys and five bays, lit by elaborate mullion and transom windows with moulded timber frames under segmental brick arches. The first floor has two-light mullion windows with wooden glazing bars, an arched centre-light, and a short two-light mullion above; the latter two sections have highly decorative iron glazing bar patterns. The second floor has a slightly recessed central bay lit by a wide window under a segmental brick arch, flanked by cross windows, all with square leaded lights in the upper panes. A prominent string course in moulded brick runs at sill level and projects under the central window, suggesting that it is corbelled. The third floor has a three-bay corbelled projection covered in roughcast render, almost as wide as the building, with a deep dentilled eaves cornice which rises into a central pediment. The central five-light window has arched upper panes, and is flanked by three-light windows.

INTERIOR: this is partly open plan on the ground and first floors and has the modern finishes and accoutrements typical of a department store of the latter half of the C20. Very few fixtures and fittings remain from earlier phases in the buildings’ history. On the third floor, the corner room has full-height panelling and glazed doors with metal glazing bars opening onto a balcony under the prominent corner gable, probably dating to the mid-1920s. Along the Market Street frontage, the small partitioned rooms are panelled with large recessed, moulded panels surmounted by a moulded cornice. These were probably created for the hairdressing department in 1925.

History

36 and 40 Market Place were designed by the Leicester-based architect Isaac Barradale FRIBA (1845-1892). Barradale was articled to William Flint and set up his own business in 1870 producing some commercial work but mainly domestic designs in a confident Domestic Revival style that influenced the character of the affluent south-eastern suburbs of the city. Ernest Gimson, the renowned Arts and Crafts architect and furniture maker, was articled to Barradale between 1881 and 1885. Barradale has numerous listed buildings to his name, including the former Barradale Offices, Greyfriars in Leicester (1880), and the former library, Station Road in Hinckley (1888).

36 Market Place was built in 1880 for Joseph Johnson who was described as a ‘family draper and milliner’ in the 1886 directory. Plans dated 1880 show a carpet warehouse in the basement; a shop on the ground floor with a kitchen, parlour and yard to the rear; and domestic accommodation including a drawing room and bedrooms on the uppers floors, with warehouses and a workshop to the rear. The elevation shows the original shop front which has since been renewed at ground-floor level several times but otherwise it has not changed. 40 Market Place, also known as the Gresham Building, was built for Richard Allen. Plans dated 1882 and 1883 show the premises consisting of three shops on the ground floor with show rooms above. There are no surviving plans for 38 Market Street but it appears to be contemporary and was very likely to be a shop with accommodation above.

The premises of Joseph Johnson and Richard Allen were amalgamated in the early 1900s. In 1962 the entire block of buildings with frontages on Market Street, Belvoir Street and Bowling Green Street was bought by Fenwick, the department store chain founded in 1882 by John James Fenwick in Newcastle upon Tyne. The current shop fronts with distinctive green fascia boards were inserted the following year. The store closed in June 2017.

Reasons for Listing

36-40 Market Street, two shops designed by Isaac Barradale in 1880 and 1883, are listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* Barradale was a prolific and influential Leicester-based architect who has numerous listed buildings to his name;
* No 36 is a well-composed design with high quality moulded and gauged brickwork and an unusually corbelled and pedimented top floor, altogether resulting in a subtle yet distinctive façade;
* No 40 has strikingly bold elevations with an imposing cluster of turret-like gables surmounting the elegantly curved corner bay, representing a Victorian commercial building of considerable architectural calibre that is a well-known landmark in the city centre;

Group value:

* They make an important contribution to the streetscape and have strong group value with numerous surrounding listed buildings, notably the Library (built as a meeting hall for Liberals, 1831) and Adult Education Centre (former Baptist Chapel, 1845) on Belvoir Street, and 8 Bowling Green Street (1865), all of which are listed at Grade II.

External Links

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