Former Gregory Butchers Shop, Bishop Auckland, County Durham

Summary

Former beef and pork butchers shop, 103-105 Newgate Street built for William Gregory in the mid-C19, and refronted and refurbished in about 1909.

Description

Former beef and pork butcher shop, 103-105 Newgate Street, mid-C19, re-fronted and refurbished in about 1909.

MATERIALS: coursed sandstone blocks, C20-tiled roof, red brick chimney stacks and a rear extension. Part tiled interior.

PLAN: a rectangular shop with a central rectangular rear range; there is an L-shaped extension to the right of the rear range forming a courtyard, and a shallow, single storey extension to the left of the rear range. All occupying a pair of linear plots.

EXTERIOR: a two storey, two bay building beneath a pitched roof with end stacks, situated on the east side of Newgate Street. The main (west) elevation has a pair of small, rectangular windows with plain stone lintels to the first floor, fitted with late-C20 uPVC fixed frames. Below is a full-width shop front which dates from about 1910. The symmetrical shopfront has a central, deeply-splayed lobby with replacement tiled floors and an original decorative mirrored soffit. It has paired, canted shop entrances, that to the right retains its original Art Nouveau-influenced wooden door and fanlight with decorative spandrels, contemporary door furniture and business plate. That to the left is modified and has a replacement door and fanlight. The shop front is framed by wooden pilasters faced with plain boarding; the original mirrored and panelled surfaces are considered to remain beneath. The pilasters have decorative console brackets with carved foliate decoration, and moulded square blocks with convex heads. The full width facia has applied modern boarding, which it is thought masks the original fascia, that read PORK GREGORY BEEF. Both shop windows are carried on a stone base, the left side is faced in panelled boards. The right shop window retains its original form, consisting of a large glass window (canted to the left) with plain, timber mullions, topped by leaded transom lights with stained glass each separated by original carved wooden mullions. One of these windows incorporates the word GREGORY in white. The left shop window (canted to the right) retains a similar overall form, but is a replacement. The rear (east) elevation has a projecting gabled range in red-brick with a pitched roof and end stack, with to the right a flat-roofed L-shaped single-storey range of several phases, and to the left a shallow, flat-roofed extension.

INTERIOR: the former beef butchers retains original early-C20 glazed tiles to its full-depth south wall. There is a frieze at ceiling height comprising green tiles with floral motifs, edged with lighter green tiles and darker moulded tiles. There are plain buff tiles below to dado level, incorporating a series of large horizontal tiled panels alternating with smaller vertical panels, all with moulded edges and an inner egg and dart frame. The vertical panels have a geometric design of plain white and green tiles decorated with yellow floral motifs. One of the horizontal panels depicts a pastoral mountain and lake scene with grazing, horned cattle; the others have plain white tiled interiors with green and buff floral tiles to the corners and a central frame of green and yellow floral tiles containing a depiction of a cow. Below is a frieze of plain and floral green tiles. At the east end of the tiled wall there is a full-height tiled pilaster. There are meat hanging rails and gas mantles to the ceiling. Photographs indicate that the former pork butcher has a modern shop interior and its north wall and ceiling are obscured by C21 fittings and a suspended ceiling respectively.

History

Gregory pork and beef business was established in Bishop Auckland in about 1850, and in the 1861 census William Gregory, Butcher is listed as occupying premises at South Road. By the time of the 1871 Census the business is occupying a single shop on Newgate Street, and by the 1881 Census Gregory and his family are occupying a pair of shops on Newgate Street (103 and 105). The pair of shops with accommodation over is shown on a late-C19 historic photograph and clearly retain their mid-C19 shopfronts: one has a pair of bow shop windows with a central entrance, and the other has a large rectangular shop window with an entrance to its right. In 1902 the Durham County Advertiser described the buildings as two dwelling houses and shops, with a large slaughterhouse, coach house and a two-stall stable to the rear. By about 1901 the Gregory family had moved to other domestic accommodation within the town, and subsequently the first floors of 103 and 105 Newgate Street became used as storage. An application for alterations to these buildings was submitted in 1903 to include a new rear extension to house a boiling house, for boiling fat and tallow, and a scullery.

In 1909 plans were submitted for further alterations to the shops including a new shopfront combining both shops, and the extension of an existing two-storey rear range. While the building did receive a new shopfront and the rear range was extended and both are present today, the shopfront as constructed differed in detail to that proposed on the plans. An historic photograph probably dating to about 1910 shows a large symmetrical shop front with a central pediment, a central splayed lobby with paired canted entrances, flanked to either side by a large shop front. Signage indicates that the shop operated as a pork butcher (left) and a beef butcher (right). During the course of the C20 the shop front was modified, most notably by the removal of a large shaped central pediment, and the fascia has been boarded over. The pork butcher shop window has been replaced by a uPVC frame (that respects the original pattern of fenestration) and its original entrance has been altered and similarly replaced. The timber frame of the beef butcher shop window is largely retained, though the original mullions with carved spandrels have been removed or modified. An early-C20 tiled decorative scheme is retained to the beef butcher shop. A former shop employee recalls that the early-C20 tiled scheme depicting pigs, in addition to ceiling rails and hooks were retained to the left side of the shop in the early C21. It is unknown whether these features remain beneath early-C21 fittings and a suspended ceiling.

Reasons for Listing

This butcher shop, of about 1909 is listed for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* once a common high-street shop, butchers are becoming increasingly rare survivals of a traditional commercial building type;
* despite some losses, the symmetry and character of the original handsome early-C20 shop front is retained and legible;
* the exposed interior tiled decorative scheme to the beef butchers is good quality and fully reflects the shop's character and function.

Group value:

* it benefits from a spatial group value with a small number of Grade II-listed buildings including the later-C19 former Co-operative, with which it also has a functional group value.

External Links

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