Martin and Company

Details

CHELTENHAM

SO9422SE PROMENADE 630-1/13/730 (North West side) 12/03/55 No.19 Martin and Company

GV II

House, now shop. c1820-40 with later alterations and restorations. Stucco over brick with concealed roof and iron cresting above shop front. EXTERIOR: 3 storeys, 1 first-floor window, and with 4 first-floor window to left return (Imperial Circus) with left end curved on plan. Front: stucco detailing includes end pilasters with sunk panels through first and second floors, wide elliptically-arched recess over first-floor window on pilasters, window has tooled architrave, continuous moulded second-floor sill band. Continuous crowning frieze and cornice. Ground-floor shop front has turned mullions, frieze and cornice. Central entrance: a part-glazed door with overlight. Left return: similar stucco decoration with pilasters to ends and between 1st and 2nd and 2nd and 3rd windows; all first-floor windows in taller and wider elliptically-arched reveals on pilasters; second-floor windows have tooled architraves and Greek-key surrounds; most windows retain blind boxes. Shop front continues around left return with late C20 glazing. To rear the original frontage remains: ground floor, from left: 4-panel door (upper panels raised and fielded, lower flush) and overlight between pilaster strips; then a pedimented stucco noticeboard on corbels; pilaster; 1/1 sash, breakforward with similar noticeboard with pediment and acroteria; pilasters with 2 fluted Doric 3/4 columns in entasis and 1/1 sash between; similar noticeboard with pediment and acroteria; continuous entablature with Greek key motif over noticeboards and 'IMPERIAL CIRCUS' in incised lettering. INTERIOR: retains many original features including dogleg staircase with rod and bobbin balusters; to main showroom a plaster frieze with cherubs and arch on pilasters. Otherwise not inspected. SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: iron border above shop front (added when balconies and hoods removed) from MacFarlane's Saracan Foundry, Glasgow, catalogue no.884, 7th edition. HISTORICAL NOTE: Rowe's Cheltenham Guided (written in 1845 but published in 1850) notes this as 'the splendid establishment

of Messrs Martin, Baskett and Martin, Jewellers and Watchmakers to the Queen', the shop having 'two frontages of chaste and elegant design'. The Promenade was laid out in 1818 as a tree-lined avenue connecting the Colonnade in High Street to the Sherborne Spa (on the site of the Queen's Hotel qv), by 1826 it was a carriage drive with spacious gravelled walk on each side. Buildings on the NW were the first to be developed. Although originally on either side were 'rows of elegant houses,' by 1845 Rowe noted that 'nearly the whole of the left-hand (SE) side .. is devoted to professional or business establishments'. Occupies an important corner site on the Promenade at the junction with Imperial Circus. (Chatwin A: Cheltenham's Ornamental Ironwork: Cheltenham: 1975-1984: 29,51; The Buildings of England: Verey D: Gloucestershire: The Vale and The Forest of Dean: London: 1970-: 146; Williams GA: Guide Book to Cheltenham: 1824-: 29; Rowe G: Illustrated Cheltenham Guide: Cheltenham: 1850-1969: 12).



Listing NGR: SO9488322453

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

475608

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Verey, D, The Buildings of England: Gloucestershire 2 The Vale and The Forest of Dean, (1970), 146
Chatwin, A, Cheltenhams Ornamental Ironwork, (1975-1984), 29, 51
Rowe, G, Illustrated Cheltenham Guide 1850-1969, (), 12
Williams, G A, Guide Book to Cheltenham, (1824), 29

End of official list entry

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