Former British Home Stores Building and Carphone Warehouse

Former department store, built 1951-1955 by George Coles of London for British Home Stores (BHS), and retail premises of 1955 for Dolcis by their staff architect, Ellis Somake.

MATERIALS: reinforced concrete frame clad with Blockley City Mixture brick, laid in stretcher bond, with reconstituted stone dressings.

PLAN: the building forms the south-east block of the Precinct crossing; the former British Home Stores faces the Upper Precinct and extends along Market Way. The Carphone Warehouse premises occupies the north-west corner of the building.

EXTERIOR: the north front which faces the Upper Precinct is of five structural bays. at ground floor level it has shop fronts giving access to the former BHS premises and the former Dolcis, now Carphone Warehouse, these are divided by piers clad in granite and Hornton stone. Above the shopfronts is a continuous concrete canopy with runs the full length of both the Precinct and Market Way elevations, and part of the rear, south elevation. This appears to have has circular glass rooflights (as elsewhere in the Precinct) which have been painted over. The canopy is clad in Westmorland slate and formerly had extending sun blinds, with metal frames, which were concealed within its edge; a number of these appear to survive.

The upper floors of the north front have five central windows which rise through the first and second floors; these are flanked by pairs of windows on each floor at both ends and all are edged in reconstituted stone dressings. The Market Way elevation, which at its northern end formed the Dolcis premises, has a large, five-bay curtain wall of glass and Vitrolite panels, with a projecting surround of reconstituted stone. There are slots in the canopy below which allowed the windows to be continuous with the shopfront beneath. Beyond this, there are two rows of seven smaller windows in projecting surrounds, before the building steps down in height. The former BHS shop front continues here, and the upper floors are divided into seven bays framed by chamfered vertical piers clad in Westmorland slate, and a continuous projecting slate cornice along the wall head. These bays each have rows of metal windows in stone surrounds with slate mullions.

To the rear, the elevation is largely of brick with some window and service openings and some blind windows. There is a row of alternating recessed and projecting brick sections at the Market Way end.

INTERIOR: the interior of the former BHS store has been largely refitted and is mostly open. There are some sections of possibly original decorative tiling concealed behind later shop fittings and stairs with some original handrails, including from the second floor customer restaurant area to the toilets above. The rear service areas are largely utilitarian and have rooflights of glass bricks which have been covered over from above. The former cash office retains timber panelling. The interior of the former Dolcis store has been refitted.