Former British Home Stores Building and Carphone Warehouse, St Michael's, Coventry

Summary

Former department store, built 1951-1955 by George Coles of London for British Home Stores (BHS), and retail premises of 1955 for Dolcis by their staff architect, Ellis Somake.

Description

Former department store, built 1951-1955 by George Coles of London for British Home Stores (BHS), and retail premises of 1955 for Dolcis by their staff architect, Ellis Somake.

MATERIALS: reinforced concrete frame clad with Blockley City Mixture brick, laid in stretcher bond, with reconstituted stone dressings.

PLAN: the building forms the south-east block of the Precinct crossing; the former British Home Stores faces the Upper Precinct and extends along Market Way. The Carphone Warehouse premises occupies the north-west corner of the building.

EXTERIOR: the north front which faces the Upper Precinct is of five structural bays. at ground floor level it has shop fronts giving access to the former BHS premises and the former Dolcis, now Carphone Warehouse, these are divided by piers clad in granite and Hornton stone. Above the shopfronts is a continuous concrete canopy with runs the full length of both the Precinct and Market Way elevations, and part of the rear, south elevation. This appears to have has circular glass rooflights (as elsewhere in the Precinct) which have been painted over. The canopy is clad in Westmorland slate and formerly had extending sun blinds, with metal frames, which were concealed within its edge; a number of these appear to survive.

The upper floors of the north front have five central windows which rise through the first and second floors; these are flanked by pairs of windows on each floor at both ends and all are edged in reconstituted stone dressings. The Market Way elevation, which at its northern end formed the Dolcis premises, has a large, five-bay curtain wall of glass and Vitrolite panels, with a projecting surround of reconstituted stone. There are slots in the canopy below which allowed the windows to be continuous with the shopfront beneath. Beyond this, there are two rows of seven smaller windows in projecting surrounds, before the building steps down in height. The former BHS shop front continues here, and the upper floors are divided into seven bays framed by chamfered vertical piers clad in Westmorland slate, and a continuous projecting slate cornice along the wall head. These bays each have rows of metal windows in stone surrounds with slate mullions.

To the rear, the elevation is largely of brick with some window and service openings and some blind windows. There is a row of alternating recessed and projecting brick sections at the Market Way end.

INTERIOR: the interior of the former BHS store has been largely refitted and is mostly open. There are some sections of possibly original decorative tiling concealed behind later shop fittings and stairs with some original handrails, including from the second floor customer restaurant area to the toilets above. The rear service areas are largely utilitarian and have rooflights of glass bricks which have been covered over from above. The former cash office retains timber panelling. The interior of the former Dolcis store has been refitted.

History

The city of Coventry became a centre for engineering at the start of the C20, particularly cycle and motor car manufacture. Many of the most notable English car makers had their base in the city. This rapid influx to the centre of a medieval city with a pattern of narrow streets caused problems and the city engineer, Ernest Ford built a southern bypass and laid out Corporation Street and Trinity Street near the centre in the 1930s. Plans for rebuilding the area around the cathedral to form a civic centre were revealed in an exhibition, 'Coventry of Tomorrow' of 1939-1940, but the major air raid of 14 November 1940 destroyed large areas of the commercial centre of the city and led to a more comprehensive assessment and plan for the city's future requirements. The city architect, Donald Gibson, who was appointed in 1939, outlined a new, zoned plan in 1941 which included a large shopping centre to the west, built around a central axis which was aligned on the tower of the old cathedral.

The size of what was planned initially caused some concern to the city's Chamber of Commerce and to the Ministry of Town and Country Planning, which authorised loans for compulsory purchase of land for development. The city plan was refined during the 1940s and a version, which was close to what was eventually built, was shown at the exhibition, 'Coventry of the Future' in 1945. This drew large crowds and general admiration which, in turn, prompted the Ministry to authorise grants to purchase and develop 274 acres in June 1947. The final plan was approved in 1949, but by this time work had already started on site; the Levelling Stone was place on Victory Day in 1946 and Broadgate landscaped in the following year. On 22 May 1948 Princess Elizabeth opened Broadgate Square and laid the foundation stone of Broadgate House, the first building of the new city centre.

The British Home Stores building was designed by George Coles of London and built 1951-1955; the corner of the building was let to Dolcis shoes and this part of the building was designed by their staff architect Ellis Somake in 1955. The original Dolcis shopfront ran through the slots in the projecting canopy to be continuous with the elevation above. A photograph of the interior of Dolcis shows it to have had an open-tread feature stair with glass balustrades and timber handrails. The Dolcis premises is now (2017) occupied by Carphone Warehouse; British Homes Stores closed in 2016.

Reasons for Listing

The former British Home Stores and Dolcis, now Carphone Warehouse building, of 1951-1955 by George Coles and Ellis Somake, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* the building is an accomplished example of a post-war commercial building which has clear group value with the other structures of the Upper and Lower Precinct in Coventry, including Broadgate House (Grade II);
* the building has clear interest for the sophisticated design of its facades, with elegant detailing and good quality materials which combines two individual commercial units to form a pleasing overall composition.

Historic interest:

* the building is a prominent part of the pedestrian Precinct development in Coventry, the first such planned development in England;
* the building was designed by two noted architects: George Coles of London and Ellis Somake, staff architect to Dolcis.
* as a clear assertion of the spirit of the vibrant and re-born city of Coventry after the damage which it suffered in the Second World War.

External Links

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