Building record 1160/0/20 - No. 27 Guildhall Road

Former Co-operative Wholesale Society warehouses built c1936 with mid 20th-century alterations.

{2} Commercial building. C1936, with mid C20th alterations. Designed either by F A Gotch or L G Ekins. Steel-framed with faience cladding. Flat concrete roof and hipped slate roof, with tall square brick stack at south-east corner. 3 storey plus basement. Allwindows are original metal framed casements. North-west entrance corner has conical galzed staircase tower with chamfered entrance and plain veneered outer doors and inner glazed doors under plain hood. Above tower has 5 vertical strips of 8 window with faience tile mullions and transoms. West front has sloping basement with 8 small windows and beyond 2 inserted doorways, beyond to right an entrance with recessed doorway and single flanking windows. Upper 3 stories with 13 windows in vertical panels with painted metal panels between. All these windows divided by and edged by projecting faience tiled surround with decorative moulding. Similar single window panel to right rising through 3 floors. North front has 2 storey façade with curved corner to left. 2 rows of strip windows in raised faience surrounds topped with a plain parapet, set back upper floor has 6 cross casement windows. East front has sloping basement with doors to left and 10 graduated windows. Central single sotrey section has eight-3-light casement windows in single strip with flat parapet, behind and above 2 similar storeys also with 8 windows each. Either side 3 storey wings that to left with 2 windows and that to right with 3 windows set in vertical panels with raised faience surrounds. INTERIOR has staircase and hallway with terrazzo floors. Hallway has 2 serpentine steps, and stairs have two curved flights to each floor with continous metal balustrade. Top floor has reception area with mosaic tiled floor and single doorway. South end has lift shaft with original doors and door surround. This is an unusual and well preserved example of a Thirties commercial building. Gotch was a significant local architect of the period, but the building has also been attributed to L G Ekins, the inventive northern architect to the Co-Operative Wholesale Society through the 1930's. The stairtower is strongly reminiscent of that by Adler and Sullivan at the pioneering Carson Pirie Scott department store, Chicago, as well as of the work of Erich Mendelsohn in Germany and at the De Ka Warr Pavillion in Bexhill (Grade I).

{3} No 27 is a Grade II listed building and is described as "an unusual and well preserved example of a 1930s commercial building". No 29 pre-dates No 27 and although not listed is of some architectural merit with links to the Co-operative society.

{4} A Co-operative Wholesale Society saleroom was opened here in 1890 but the remains of the present wholesale warehouses are of later date. The art-deco style building was constructed in 1936, the entrance on the corner with Angel Lane has a circular staircase.

<1> Clews Architects, 1980s, Database for Listing of Historic Buildings of Special Architectural Interest: Northamptonshire, 14/ (Digital archive). SNN102353.

<2> 1976, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest ("Greenback"), H14 (unchecked) (Catalogue). SNN1000.

<3> Godfrey, M, 2006, A Standing Building Survey of 27-29 Guildhall Road, Northampton (SP 755 604), p.1 (checked) (Report). SNN105459.

<4> Perkins, P, Whittaker, R and Denton, A, 2022, A Guide to the Industrial Heritage of Northamptonshire, p. 57/ Site 245 (Book). SNN113793.

Record last edited

Mar 25 2025 11:00AM