64-67, TOTTENHAM COURT ROAD, 2-8, GOODGE STREET

Details

798-1/0/10191 GOODGE STREET 19-JUL-02 2-8 TOTTENHAM COURT ROAD 64-67

GV II

Former Catesby's Store, 64-67 Tottenham Court Road and 2-8 Goodge Street. Former carpet and linoleum store, with former public house at corner; now sub-divided into retail use on ground floor, office use above. Free Renaissance style. By Henry Alfred Whitburn FRIBA, 1903, with possibly earlier range to west facing onto Goodge Street. Red brick with extensive Portland Stone dressings, granite faced lower floors, slate and bronze-tiled roofs. EXTERIOR: Tottenham Court Road elevation is an extremely rich essay in the Free Renaissance style. Ground floor with inserted mezzanine level set within a four-bay arcade faced in red granite, carried on Ionic columns with bases of black granite. Channelled rustication to spandrels, keystones to arches. First and second floors treated together as a six-bay arcade (arranged 2-1-2-1) of tall, arch-headed windows, divided by pilasters of banded red brick; balustrades of red granite at first floor level with former stone fascia panel, enriched with carved ornament of arabesque dragons. Decorative spandrels to arches at second floor level of cut brick or Portland Stone, carved with cartouches against foliage. Third and fourth floors with projecting oriel to left, Venetian window over southern pair of bays with tall Ionic columns; Projecting oriel bays to third and sixth bays, with ornamental bases enriched with storks, with outstretched wings; third floor windows between are divided by short Ionic columns with arched windows above. Picturesque skyline terminates with a square dome to left, sheathed in fish-scale tiles, with cupola above. Two two-stage domes with metal finials with triton-enriched weathervanes over third and sixth bays. Fourth and fifth bays terminate in a large segment-headed gable: beneath the carved ornamental finial decoration of a dragon holding a shield is a large circular window. Mullion and transom windows to first and second floor windows; replacement windows to upper floors. South-east corner is angled, with projecting oriel window at upper levels, the underside of which is enriched with a cartouche containing the letter 'C' (for Catesby). Single granite-faced arch to ground floor of Goodge Street return, paired arches to first and second floors, Venetian arch motif to third and fourth floors. Lower western continuation comprising 4-8 (even) Goodge Street: four storeys with attics, red brick and Portland Stone-faced gabled fronts with arch-headed openings to ground and first floor windows, ground floors altered. Spandrels of cut brick at second floor level, those to centre unit depicting scenes of lino printing and sales. Keystones at first floor level decorated with 'C & S' (for Catesby & Son). Oriel to central second floor window flanked by columns, other windows are stone mullion and transoms. Third floor windows are tripartite, with Jacobean-style turned mullions of stone; aprons of cut brick below. Gables to attic storey, central one with tripartite window in stone surround. Flanking gables with ball finials; slate-hung mansard roof behind. INTERIOR: not inspected, believed to be much altered. HISTORY: Edward Catesby opened a carpet and lino shop in Marylebone in 1865, and moved to Tottenham Court Road in 1885. The corner of this site was ocupied by the Talbot public house, and absorbed into the store in 1923. The site was rebuilt in 1903 (the date on certain keystones) and the corner pub included within the new scheme. The architect's initials HAW and the date 1904 are visible at the top of the main gable. A new entrance and air raid shelter were inserted in 1938, and the building was altered internally in 1953. Catesby's originally extended as far as 16 Goodge Street as well. Listed principally for its exceptionally exuberant facades, which embody the commercial confidence of Edwardian London at the zenith of imperial power, and are spirited examples of eclectic historicism in architecture. SOURCE: English Heritage London Region historian's report (ref.HART/CAM 453), 1998 citing references to an LCC builidng control case file, and W.C. Catesby, 'From Fawkes to Phineas. The Story of Catesby's', St Pancras Journal, Nov. 1961, 99-101..

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