PREMISES OF MESSRS LIBERTY AND COMPANY LIMITED (TUDOR BUILDING)

Details

TQ 2981 SW GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET W1 Soho 1900/57/61 Premises of Messrs Liberty and 14.12.1972 Company Limited (Tudor Building)

GV II*

Department store. 1922-1924 by Edwin T. Hall and E. Stanley Hall, with bridge connecting to Regent Street store added in 1925, further bridge added 1974 by William Holford and Partners and other minor late C20 alterations. Tudor Arts and Crafts style, reusing timber from the breaking up of two early C19 "men of war" sailing ships, HMS Hindustan and HMS Impregnable. The block facing Great Marlborough Street and Little Marlborough Street is timber framed and also has stone cladding, tiled roofs and clustered moulded brick chimneystacks. Rear elevation clad in white brick. 4 storeys, and gabled attics. Long range with close set mullioned and transomed leaded casements to upper floors, some of Sparrows House Ipswich type with some stained glass pictorial cames. Gables have decorative bargeboads and there are elaborate balconies. Centrepiece with main entrance has corbelled canted bays surmounted by overhanging gables. Central gable has weathervane with gilded model of the Mayflower. Flat-headed display windows with leaf decoration. Decorative lead rainwater heads. Left side door to Great Marlborough Street elevation has deep relief carving of craftsmen at work above. Left side elevation has two timberframed bays and left side stone clad staircase tower with Tudor-arched doorcase to ground floor. 1925 link bridge of three storeys is clad in stone to two lower storeys and has a timberframed gable above. Ground floor has giant elliptical arch. First floor has clock designed by Mr Hope Jones, Chairman of the British Horological Institution. Forming the spandrels of the clock face are four winged heads representing the four winds. The crowing cock and rising sun symbolise morning; an owl and moon the night time. At the chiming of the hour moving figures of St George and the dragon would fight. Plain 1974 link bridge behind. Late C20 corrugated roof extension to part of the Great Marlborough Street elevation not of special interest. INTERIOR: Divided into a series of galleries four storeys high grouped around three wells. Each layer of wide galleries is divided into eight fireproof compartments. The wells are toplit with open timber roofs, all of a different pattern and the galleries have high quality carving. At the west end of the western gallery is a wide well staircase of oak adorned with carved posts and panelled balustrades. A secondary staircase is situated at the south east angle, incorporating a War Memorial to members of the firm who died during the First World War. Lifts have Tudor arches and are lined with linenfiold panelling. Oak doorcases throughout. Fourth floor was designed in small areas to suit display of furniture. It has a northern range roof of kingpost, rectangular well with arch-braced roof with trefoil decoration, an octagonal shaped well with arch-braced roof with pendants and a rectangular well with hammerbeam roof and quatrefoils in the spandrels. Stone fireplace with stone ogee arch, lined in brick and flanked by blank round-headed niches. Jacobean style stone fireplace with leaf carved spandrels and carved wooden mantelpiece with four terms, central round-headed arch with marquetry inlay, strapwork panels, strapwork pilasters and adjoining plank and muntin panelling. Fireplace of antique blue and white tiles. Original oak and metal housings for radiators. Third floor has exposed floor joists and limed oak fittings. First floor retains plastered motifs. Ground floor retains plaster decoration and panelling. Basement retains fireplace with stone four-centred arch and brick surround and a smaller wooden four-centred arched fireplace with brick surround. Some original oak display cupbards with shelves below. N.B. See also Nos. 208-222 (even) Regent Street (East Side).

["The Builder" April 28 1922 p646, July 27 1923. "The Architectural Review" May 1924 pp 180-185. "The Architect" July 4 1924. "The Architects' Journal" June 4 1924 pp934-950 Alison Adburgham "Liberty's, the Biography of a shop"1975.] Stephen Calloway: "House of Liberty: masters of Style and Decoration 1992.]









Listing NGR: TQ2915181082

This List entry has been amended to add sources for War Memorials Online and the War Memorials Register. These sources were not used in the compilation of this List entry but are added here as a guide for further reading, 27 October 2017.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

209887

Legacy System:

LBS

End of official list entry