The former Woolworth Building, Upper Precinct

The former Woolworth Building, Upper Precinct

A department store and parade of shops designed and built for Woolworth by their staff architect Harold Winbourne between 1952 and 1954.

The building is constructed with a reinforced concrete frame and floors. The exterior is faced in red Blockley City mixture brick laid in English bond with stone and Westmorland slate dressings.

The building steps down with the fall in land, presenting four storeys to Market Way with a further storey to the rear and along the approach to the Lower Precinct. The principal premises, now occupied by Boot's but originally by Woolworth's, has a shop front facing north. The eastern front facing Market Way contains a number of different shop fronts intended to be sub-let. A further shop floor for Woolworth's, including a cafe at first-floor balcony level, was entered from the southern end of the eastern side.

The north front is symmetrical in its upper floors, with five bays facing the approach to the Lower Precinct. At ground floor level, plate glass shop windows are divided by piers clad in Travertine Marble. A concrete canopy with Westmorland slate fascia runs along both north and east street fronts. The three central bays are slightly sunk, forming a single unified panel for the upper three floors and divided by emphatic mullions clad in Westmorland slate with light-coloured spandrel panels between the floors. Individual windows have seven lights and cast metal surrounds. To either side are square windows with projecting stone surrounds.

The east front has a similar arrangement with a large central window panel of six bays. To the right are windows with stone surrounds; the two top-floor windows here are larger, with paired sets of glass doors divided by a mullion cased in Westmorland slate. In front is a balcony with iron balustrade supported on concrete brackets. To the left the block continues with a prominent projecting bay bordered by projecting stone surrounds and stone-framed windows to each floor. Further left are ten bays set close together with casement windows, replaced by uPVC frames to the second and third floor levels, where an eleventh window bay has also been added.

The south face has a shop entrance at the far right and a service door to the left with four paired horizontal slit windows. Above are eleven closely-set bays with casements, replaced with uPVC to the two upper floors. At far left is a vertical staircase window of glass bricks with sunken panels of ashlar between the floors. The west front faces a service yard and has a similar staircase window at far right. To its left are twelve bays of closely-set windows with uPVC substitutes to the upper floors. At ground floor level are loading bays and service doors with horizontal slit windows. At far left, flush with the rest of the front, are four bays which rise above the previous level to form a service tower with paired casements flanked by staircase windows. The top of the tower has an extra floor of windows and a blind attic storey.

The basement and ground floor levels of the present Boot's store have been refitted with no obvious trace of the building's earlier history. The ground and first floor levels to the south, now let to Poundland, were formerly a double-height sales floor for Woolworth's with a cafe at first floor balcony level. Access to the balcony is by a circular imperial staircase with a central lower flight dividing at the landing and continuing as two curved flights. A further dogleg staircase has a moulded metal balustrade with brass handrail. The ceiling above the sales floor is boldly moulded with large-scale curved decoration and moulded ventilation grilles. The three upper floors at the northern end have offices at the front looking north over the Lower Precinct; behind these the floor space is used for storage with exposed brick walls and concrete beams. Service lift openings and marks on the beams of the top floor show that this lofty storey previously had a mezzanine level which has now been removed. The upper floors at the southern end have been converted to student accommodation, marked on the exterior by the replacement uPVC windows.