Richmond House

Richmond House

A commercial and industrial building completed in 1930 to designs by George Gordon Hardy, built in Art Deco style.

The building comprises a steel frame with rendered and painted concrete or concrete stone to all elevations. It has four storeys and a full-height basement, with a flat roof now covered in modern asphalt. The footprint is a squashed D-shape with a curved principal elevation. A canted corner to the north-west contains the entrance to the shop floor.

The principal elevation is curved and composed of 12 bays divided by giant pilasters. Each pilaster capital is decorated with three palm leaves. Above this runs a deep frieze featuring a band of patarae alternating with palm leaves and sceptres. The building name "RICHMOND HOUSE" is set out in large raised lettering, with a plain cornice above. The window aprons have plain rectangular moulding with central roundels. The proportions of the glazing, pilasters and aprons form a distinctive grid pattern.

The ground floor retains its original shop fronts with cast decoration featuring linear mouldings and patarae matching the frieze above. The windows at this level are large plate glass panels. Openings for motor vehicles into the interior remain on the north elevation. The main door is located at the south-west corner and the service entrance at the north-east.

The upper-floor windows are sliding multi-pane sash windows with 6 panes over 6. The north-east corner contains four sets of narrow windows with plain narrow pilasters and tall aprons, articulating the service areas on the landing stages of the service stairs.

Internally, the building is primarily of painted concrete with exposed riveted steel beams forming the frame. The exterior pilasters are expressed on the interior, projecting between the windows on each floor. The building was originally open plan on all floors, with adjacent main and service staircases on the east side. Services (kitchen and toilets) occupy landing stages between each floor in the north-east corner, with one toilet retaining its original door. Some floors are now subdivided with stud partitions to form offices and meeting rooms, though the ground floor and upper floor remain open plan. The original door-frames survive, though not the original doors. The original staircases and balusters, featuring Art Deco wave detailing, remain in situ, as does the original granolithic flooring. A distinctive basement skylight to the main entrance is tiled in black and white diamond mosaic effect with small glazed blocks.

The basement is lined with brick and contains steel I-section beams, with projections aligning with the pilasters above. Remnants of hoist machinery, likely dating to its use for motor car sales, survive in the basement.