Former Burton's Department Store and Offices, Numbers 34-35 Whitefriargate and 6-10 Alfred Gelder Street

Former Burton's Department Store and Offices

A four-storey department store and offices built in 1936 by the company architects of Montague Burton, with late twentieth-century alterations.

The building occupies a prominent corner site at numbers 34-35 Whitefriargate and 6-10 Alfred Gelder Street, presenting a striking convex curved polygonal form aligned north-west with a south-west shop entrance facing Beverley Gate.

The structure employs a steel and concrete frame clad in polished black emerald-pearl granite with moulded gold metalwork, rising to a parapet concealing a flat roof. The main west elevation, facing Queen Victoria Square, is particularly extensive and curves outward across eleven narrow vertical bays on the upper three storeys. Windows are predominantly white margin glazed metal-framed casements.

The ground floor features a continuous late twentieth-century shopfront and entrance with altered upper fascia, wrapping from the south elevation to the middle of the west elevation. North of this, two original ground-floor shop windows survive though now blocked and painted, adjoining an original granite pilaster office doorway with plain glazed toplight. A separate early twentieth-century two-bay shopfront curves around the north elevation facing Alfred Gelder Street, with plain granite plinths and pilasters. Both shopfronts retain moulded timber cornices, retractable box blinds, bronze box closers and bronze air grille covers. The Alfred Gelder Street shopfront has three late twentieth-century curved windows with a triangular mosaic floor below, ornamented with a border and lettering reading "LET / BURTON / DRESS / YOU". An adjoining shopfront to the right features an irregular two-pane window and doorway.

On the upper floors, the west elevation's three central bays form a prominent frontispiece, divided by two substantial gold faience pilasters with shaped caps and three windows to each floor. The second and third-floor windows have gold semi-circular cast-iron ornamental balconettes. Flanking these are four bays on either side with four windows to each floor, decorated with slim recessed and decorated spandrel panels masking the floor levels. At either end of the west elevation is a single-bay canted corner, each with a convex curved parapet rising above. The first and second-floor windows share a moulded gold window surround, with the second-floor featuring a semi-circular cast-iron ornamented balconette.

The south return facing Whitefriargate comprises three bays with matching fenestration to the west elevation, featuring three windows to each floor decorated with slim recessed and decorated spandrel panels.

The rear east elevation is of red brick, with its southern end abutting number 36 Whitefriargate. The northern end has six windows to each floor.

The interior retains substantial original features. Concrete floors are covered with oak wood-block flooring in many areas, some now concealed. The upper floors have beamed ceilings, with original radiators and heating systems remaining in place. Panelled doors and moulded skirting survive in some locations, as do some original sanitary fittings. A 1930s Art Deco metal cage lift with escape stair wrapped around it remains at the north end, set above terrazzo flooring. The escape stair features curved treads, and the lift entrances on each floor retain metal pedimented door surrounds with red metal signage.