1–5 Pillory Street is a large curved corner block in Nantwich

Nantwich

Nantwich is a market town and civil parish in the Borough of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. The town gives its name to the parliamentary constituency of Crewe and Nantwich...

, Cheshire

Cheshire

Cheshire is a ceremonial county in North West England. Cheshire's county town is the city of Chester, although its largest town is Warrington. Other major towns include Widnes, Congleton, Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Runcorn, Macclesfield, Winsford, Northwich, and Wilmslow...

, England, in the French Baroque style

French Baroque architecture

French Baroque is a form of Baroque architecture that evolved in France during the reigns of Louis XIII , Louis XIV and Louis XV...

 of the late 17th century, which is listed at grade II. It is located on the corner of Hospital Street and Pillory Street (at ), and also includes 2 Hospital Street. Formerly known as Chesters' Stores, it was built in 1911 for the grocer's

Grocer

A grocer is a bulk seller of food. Beginning as early as the 14th century, a grocer was a dealer in comestible dry goods such as spices, pepper, sugar, and cocoa, tea and coffee...

, P. H. Chesters, to a design by local architect, Ernest H. Edleston (1880–1964). The building has subsequently been used for a variety of retail and wholesale purposes, and it is currently a furniture store.

It is the most recent listed building in Nantwich, as well as the only one dating from after the Victorian

Victorian era

The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...

 era. English Heritage

English Heritage

English Heritage . is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport...

 describes the building in the listing as "a corner block of unusual design", and local historian Jane Stevenson calls it "flamboyant". Some contemporary observers likened the building, with its circular, porthole

Porthole

A porthole is a generally circular, window used on the hull of ships to admit light and air. Porthole is actually an abbreviated term for "port hole window"...

-like windows, to the Lusitania

RMS Lusitania

RMS Lusitania was a British ocean liner designed by Leonard Peskett and built by John Brown and Company of Clydebank, Scotland. The ship entered passenger service with the Cunard Line on 26 August 1907 and continued on the line's heavily-traveled passenger service between Liverpool, England and New...

liner, which had been launched a few years earlier.

History

The corner of Pillory Street and Hospital Street (1 Pillory Street and 2 Hospital Street) was occupied from 1869 by Chesters' Stores, a premises of P. H. Chesters. This successful local grocer's

Grocer

A grocer is a bulk seller of food. Beginning as early as the 14th century, a grocer was a dealer in comestible dry goods such as spices, pepper, sugar, and cocoa, tea and coffee...

 business had been established by Philip H. Chesters in 1859 and continued by his three nephews including Joseph Chesters. It was the largest grocery business in Nantwich in the early 20th century, with several other premises in the town, including a small shop adjacent to the Crown Hotel

Crown Hotel, Nantwich

The Crown Hotel, also known as the Crown Inn, is a timber-framed, black-and-white hotel and public house located at 24–26 High Street in the town of Nantwich in Cheshire, England. The present building dates from shortly after 1583...

 on High Street, a bakery on Barker Street and a warehouse on Pepper Street. The original stores also featured a curved corner.

In 1910, the existing corner premises of the firm were demolished, together with adjacent buildings including two public houses (the Golden Lion and the George and Dragon), and Pillory Street was widened. The corner, which forms the junction of Pillory Street, Hospital Street and High Street, had been the site of numerous accidents.

The present building was constructed in 1911. The design was by local architect E. H. Edleston of Bower & Edleston, a Nantwich firm of architects founded in 1854 by Thomas Bower

Thomas Bower

Thomas Bower was an English architect and surveyor based in Nantwich, Cheshire. He worked in partnership with Ernest H. Edleston at the Nantwich firm, Bower & Edleston, which he founded in 1854. He is particularly associated with the Gothic Revival style of architecture.In 1883, Bower was living...

. A contemporary commentator described:
Dicky Garnetts refers to a chemist's, Garnett's, which had occupied a wooden thatched building at 1 Hospital Street opposite Chesters' Stores, and had been demolished in 1883. Despite the luxurious premises, prices at Chesters' Stores were described as "very competitive". In addition to the retail area, the new building housed assistants and apprentices. In 1929, the business passed to Joseph Chesters' son, Colin F. Chesters. 1–5 Pillory Street remained Chesters' Stores until at least 1939. Subsequent retailers on the site included H. S. Jones and Son, a wholesale confectioner

Confectionery

Confectionery is the set of food items that are rich in sugar, any one or type of which is called a confection. Modern usage may include substances rich in artificial sweeteners as well...

; Boots

Boots UK

Boots UK Limited , is a leading pharmacy chain in the United Kingdom, with outlets in most high streets throughout the country...

, a chemist (1960s); and later a carpet shop.

Description

English Heritage

English Heritage

English Heritage . is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport...

 describes the building's design as "unusual". The stylistic details derive from the French Baroque style

French Baroque architecture

French Baroque is a form of Baroque architecture that evolved in France during the reigns of Louis XIII , Louis XIV and Louis XV...

 of the late 17th century. The building is V-shaped, of two main storeys with double attics in red brick under a slate roof. The Pillory Street façade, of eight bays, is approximately double the length of the Hospital Street façade, which has four bays. The curved corner, of a further three bays, forms the junction of the two streets with High Street, and is finished with a concave spirelet, giving a dome-like appearance. The spirelet bears a flag pole. The ground floor has cream-coloured rendering

Stucco

Stucco or render is a material made of an aggregate, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as decorative coating for walls and ceilings and as a sculptural and artistic material in architecture...

 with a string course above, and part of the first floor and lower attic level is also rendered.

The main entrance is at the curved corner; the doorcase has flanking pilaster

Pilaster

A pilaster is a slightly-projecting column built into or applied to the face of a wall. Most commonly flattened or rectangular in form, pilasters can also take a half-round form or the shape of any type of column, including tortile....

s with a pediment

Pediment

A pediment is a classical architectural element consisting of the triangular section found above the horizontal structure , typically supported by columns. The gable end of the pediment is surrounded by the cornice moulding...

 above. A second entrance takes the place of one of the original windows on the Pillory Street face, while the original second doorway at the end of this face is now blind. The windows flanking the main doorway and two others on the Pillory Street face have rectangular heads; the other ground-floor windows have semicircular heads. In both cases, the top part is divided into small panes (now obscured by modern shop-window hoods). The ground-floor shop windows are all flanked by pilasters and topped with moulding detail including a keystone

Keystone (architecture)

A keystone is the wedge-shaped stone piece at the apex of a masonry vault or arch, which is the final piece placed during construction and locks all the stones into position, allowing the arch to bear weight. This makes a keystone very important structurally...

-like feature that reaches the string course. The mullion

Mullion

A mullion is a vertical structural element which divides adjacent window units. The primary purpose of the mullion is as a structural support to an arch or lintel above the window opening. Its secondary purpose may be as a rigid support to the glazing of the window...

ed and transomed

Transom (architectural)

In architecture, a transom is the term given to a transverse beam or bar in a frame, or to the crosspiece separating a door or the like from a window or fanlight above it. Transom is also the customary U.S. word used for a transom light, the window over this crosspiece...

 first-floor windows have horizontal heads with brick keystone detailing. The two attic storeys each have a row of circular dormer

Dormer

A dormer is a structural element of a building that protrudes from the plane of a sloping roof surface. Dormers are used, either in original construction or as later additions, to create usable space in the roof of a building by adding headroom and usually also by enabling addition of windows.Often...

 windows in the steep roof, the lower set being decorated below with festoon

Festoon

Festoon , a wreath or garland, and so in architecture a conventional arrangement of flowers, foliage or fruit bound together and suspended by ribbons, either from a decorated knot, or held in the mouths of lions, or suspended across the back of bulls heads as...

s of fruit and flowers, which differ in detail from window to window. The drainpipe heads are all inscribed with 1911 in a lozenge

Lozenge

A lozenge , often referred to as a diamond, is a form of rhombus. The definition of lozenge is not strictly fixed, and it is sometimes used simply as a synonym for rhombus. Most often, though, lozenge refers to a thin rhombus—a rhombus with acute angles of 45°...

pattern.

Modern use

As of 2010, 1–5 Pillory Street is the premises of a luxury furniture store of the Clive Christian chain.

Sources

• Lamberton A, Gray R. Lost Houses in Nantwich (Landmark Publishing; 2005) (ISBN 1-84306-202-X)
• Pevsner N, Hubbard E. The Buildings of England: Cheshire (Penguin Books; 1971) (ISBN 0-14-071042-6)
• Stevenson PJ. Nantwich: A Brief History and Guide (1994)
• Vaughan D. Nantwich: It Was Like This (Nantwich Museum; 1987)