Description

CHELTENHAM

SO9422SE PROMENADE
630-1/13/753 (South East side)
05/05/72 Nos.108-118 (Even)
Paris House

GV II

Boarding house, c1820-34, altered to shops, c1876-99. With C20
alterations. Stucco over brick with concealed roof, stucco end
and rear stacks with cornices and wrought-iron balconies.
PLAN: original range has central 3-window breakforward; ground
floor now has row of projecting shop fronts which continue to
returns.
EXTERIOR: 2 storeys, 5 first-floor windows, with further range
at left. First floor retains original stucco detailing:
breakforward articulated by 3/4-engaged Ionic columns to ends
and between windows; end Doric pilasters; continuous
entablature and blocking course. First floor has 6/6 sashes in
plain reveals and tooled architraves with sill band.
Ground floor shop fronts articulated by rusticated pilasters,
frieze and dentil cornice, where original; now with
plate-glass windows with glass doors to left; cambered-arched,
tripartite windows with slender mullions and recessed, glazed
door to left entrance at centre, otherwise shops have glazed
shop fronts and frieze, that to left with frosted glass and
margin-lights.
INTERIOR: retain some original features including rear
skylight to stairwell with panes of frosted glass with
margin-lights. A stretch of deep coving and pilaster.
SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: balustrade over projecting shops at left
part has stick balusters and embellished panels. To right part
and continuing to right return a balustrade with web and
scrolled lozenge motif.
HISTORICAL NOTE: Paris House is shown on Merrett's 1834 Map as
a single build with Belgrave House, Imperial Square (qv). The
Ionic columns and Doric pilasters were originally to full
height. Rowe's Guide illustrates a balcony to ground floor
with web motif which may have been re-used in part. In 1845
when Rowe wrote his Cheltenham Guide (published 1850) he noted
this as 'Mesdames Haydon and Shaw's Boarding House (which)
occupies a conspicuous position at the corner of Imperial
Square. .. the internal accommodations are on the best scale'.
The Promenade was laid out in 1818 as a tree-lined drive to
the Sherborne Spa, on the site of the Queen's Hotel, to the
Colonnade in the High Street; 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, 'nearly
the whole of the left-hand (SE) side .. is devoted to
professional or business establishments'.
(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: 10-11, 19(ILLUS)).

Listing NGR: SO9475222186

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26667315

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.

Recommended Books

• 
  Cumbria: Cumberland, Westmorland and Furness (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  ENGLAND GUIDE TO POST WAR LISTED: A Guide to Post-war Listed Buildings
• 
  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  A Buying and Owning a Listed Building: A Brief Guide
• 
  Development and Design of Heritage Sensitive Sites: Strategies for Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas
• 
  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2