Former Cole Brothers' Department Store

Former Cole Brothers' Department Store

A department store built between 1963 and 1964 to designs of 1961 by the architects Yorke, Rosenberg and Mardall. The building is a rectangular structure surrounded by roads with its primary frontage to Barker's Pool on the north side.

The building is constructed of reinforced concrete faced with white tiles and brown glass mosaic panels. The ground-floor shop fronts are faced in Spanish grey granite with aluminium window and door frames. The integral car park and ramp is located at the south end, with additional parking on the roof of the store.

The four-storey main elevation to Barker's Pool has five bays. A full-width tiled canopy projects over the ground floor, beneath which sits a wide central public entrance with aluminium and glazed doors and large rectangular overlights. On either side are two large full-height display windows with aluminium frames and grey granite facing. The floor plates between the upper floors are clad in tiles, forming horizontal bands and topped by the parapet. The upper floors are articulated with brown mosaic panels of varying widths, with vertical lights to each side and rows of smaller lights above. The first floor has five wide panels; the second floor has three wide panels across the first three bays and two narrower panels to the fourth and fifth bays; the third floor has two almost square panels to each bay, separated by vertical lights.

The canopy continues round the corner onto the west elevation facing Cambridge Street, which also has tile-clad floor plates with full-height vertical bands of tiling marking stairwell locations. The ground floor features similar large display windows with a wide public entrance to the right of a vertical tiling band. At the right-hand end is a doorway with modern external ramp access. The upper floors have irregularly placed brown mosaic panels of varying widths. Set back on the roof behind the parapet is a flat-roofed engine plant room. The car park rises above parapet level at the right-hand end with wide full-height tiling and board-marked concrete balustrades. A projecting concrete balustrade encloses the upper end of the external car park ramp.

The south elevation facing Cross Burgess Street has board-marked concrete balustrades at both outer corners. The car park ramp rises from right to left with a board-marked concrete outer balustrade. Beneath at the left-hand end is a large display window with double doors; to the right are two further display windows surrounded by grey granite.

The east elevation facing Burgess Street has the car park at the left-hand end with board-marked concrete balustrades wrapping round the south-east corner. Beneath these balustrades is the vehicle entrance to the internal goods yard. A wide full-height band of tiling, a narrower vertical band of board-marked concrete balustrades with a recessed staff entrance with double doors, and a narrower full-height vertical band of tiling follow. The sales floors have tile-clad floor plates and a full-height tiled band towards the right-hand end. The canopy wraps a short distance round the north-east corner with a large ground-floor display window and adjacent public entrance beneath. The ground floor displays wide brown mosaic panels with a row of lights above; the upper floors have mosaic panels of varying widths with vertical lights to each side and rows of smaller lights above.

Interior

The sales floors are open plan with boxed-in columns, a central escalator void with a roof light above, enclosed staircases to the periphery, and lifts in the centre of the south cross wall dividing the store from the car park. In the south-east corner of each floor is a lobby with two sets of doors between the store floor and the car park. The second floor contains a public cafeteria and white-tiled kitchen on the west side, with a staff dining room and white-tiled kitchen above on the third floor.

The main public entrance on the north has a glazed lobby with aluminium framed and glazed inner doors opening onto the sales floor. The public side entrances open into stairwells with ground floor facing in grey granite. The entrances, stairs and landings have black terrazzo flooring with thin inset metal strips. The stairs have rectangular-section metal balusters and handrails (presently painted pale green) with brass strips to the top faces of the handrails and toughened glass panels. The staff staircases have square-section metal handrails. The central escalator is the original fitted by Marryatt-Scott. The original boilers, heating and ventilation systems remain in the basement. Many inner double doors are of solid timber with narrow vertical safety lights with square brass hand plates and skirting strips.

The sales floors and the cafeteria and dining room have been refurbished. The car park has sloping floors with no internal columns.