17, Fitzroy Street

17 Fitzroy Street is a department store built in 1903 by the architect R. Frank Atkinson for the firm Laurie and McConnal, purveyors of general ironmongery, stationery and fancy goods. The building is designed in the Edwardian 'Wrenaissance' style and represents a good example of the provincial department stores erected at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. The rear has been rebuilt in the late 20th century with a modern stair tower.

The building is constructed of red brick with yellow gault brick to the sides and stone dressings, with a slate-covered roof. It is rectangular in plan and comprises three storeys over a basement with an attic storey. The main elevation has a pitched roof with coped parapet gables and a hipped front section. A moulded stone eaves cornice runs across the main street front, and four evenly spaced dormers light the attic storey.

The façade is seven window bays wide, with the central three bays breaking forward under a round pediment. Both the break forward and the main corners feature rusticated stone quoins. Within the pediment is a circular light in a decorative stone surround, flanked on each side by the date 1903, the numerals divided between two lozenge-shaped inset stones. The main elevation is surmounted by a substantial octagonal lantern constructed of wood with round arched openings containing a balustrade and lead-faced beneath.

At first-floor level, window openings have segmental heads under a stone drip mould and stone sills fronted by decorative iron balcony railings. Above, window openings are square-headed with gauged bricks and prominent stone keystones. The window frames, apparently late 20th-century like-for-like replacements, are tall casements. Downpipes have rainwater heads dated 1903 fed through openings in the eaves cornice. Two iron brackets for lamp hanging are attached to the façade at first-floor level, though the lamps have been lost. Ground-floor show windows in a grey granite surround are modern, though they maintain the bay divisions of the upper levels. The modern entrance is placed centrally.

The rear elevation dates to the late 20th century, with a modern stair tower attached to the right.

Internally, the principal features of interest are the main staircase and light well, and some simple cornices survive. The light well floor openings are round-ended rectangles, and the well is capped by a pitched roof light with hips. The floor is supported by square columns with moulded heads at the corners of the light well. The main stair is a dog leg stair with turned balusters and square newels with ball finials. The bases of the upper newels are finished with finials. On the main floors, the staircase baluster rails have semi-circular recesses. A lift was inserted into the stair well in the late 20th century. Modern glazed partitions and offices on the two upper floors are of little historic interest.

Laurie and McConnal took over the site around 1891 and extended the premises into adjacent shops around 1901, 1910, and again in 1915, by which time they occupied what were then numbered 121-129 Fitzroy Street. One of these buildings was likely a separate structure to the rear of 17 Fitzroy Street, standing on the opposite side of Fitzroy Lane, with the two buildings linked probably by a footbridge, as shown on the 1927 Ordnance Survey Map. During this expansion, the original store was demolished and the present building was erected. R. Frank Atkinson was well known for designing the major London store of Warling and Gillow on Oxford Street, one of the grandest Edwardian department stores. Around 1925, Laurie and McConnal erected a new two-storey block on the west side of the 1903 building.

Laurie and McConnal occupied the site until the 1980s. The streetscape was then altered with the erection of the Grafton Centre, a large shopping mall, and many historic buildings lining Fitzroy Street were swept away and replaced by modern units. 17 Fitzroy Street survived these changes, unlike other Laurie and McConnal premises which were lost. The line of Fitzroy Lane on the north side of the site was altered slightly to respect a new car park, and at around this time the rear of the store was rebuilt. The rear does not appear from map evidence to have reduced the store's footprint. A photograph in the Cambridgeshire Collection shows that office partitions at the rear and an additional stair and balustrade, which probably led from the centre of the ground-floor to the basement, have been lost, probably at this time. A modern stair tower was added at the north-west corner. The building was latterly occupied by Habitat, which is believed to have created the present ground-floor shop front.