Description

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

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26667265

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

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