158 Freeman Street

This is a mid-19th century jeweller’s shop, remodelled in 1939 by Pollards of London for C Nidd and Son. It is constructed of brick with a Welsh slate roof. The front of the building features a fascia of polished black Vitrolite glass with a bronze strip surround, and bronze surrounds to the openings.

The building is two storeys high, with a single bay fronting the street. The ground floor has a square-headed plate-glass shop window on the right side and an entrance on the left side, leading to a long, slightly tapering, serpentine passage. This passage has a series of four large plate-glass display windows on each side. The shop windows, both to the front and in the passage, have black Vitrolite aprons with small circular ventilators, slender wood frames, and friezes with black glass panels displaying white lettering. The entrance passage has a glazed wooden inner door beneath a plain overlight, a polished composite stone floor with a grey and black border, and a panelled wooden ceiling with a circular clock suspended midway along the passage. The shop fascia has a flush surround to the front window and doorway, with a deep black Vitrolite frieze above bearing the white lettering “PHILIP JOHN”, framed by bronze arms designed for a folding canopy. A later painted name-board, matching the style, bears the name “JONATHAN PAUL.” Above this is a canopy box and a tripartite first-floor window, all with bronze surrounds. The wide central window has a recessed black Vitrolite panel with white lettering indicating "ENGAGEMENT AND WEDDING RINGS -- WATCH SPECIALISTS" set within a white border. The narrow flanking side lights have frosted glass behind thin, bronze "fish-scale" pattern lattice-work, each with a burglar alarm box attached near the top. A 19th-century corniced wooden gutter is present above. An end stack is located to the right.

The interior of the entrance passage is lined with polished mahogany panelling and sliding doors, featuring a plinth, frieze, and cornice. Contemporary display cabinets are also present.

The jeweller’s business was founded by Robert Nidd in 1895 and later traded as “Philip John”, and subsequently, “Jonathan Paul” from 1994.

This is a distinctive shop front in the Modern style, notable for its high standard of design, materials, and manufacture.