James Smith And Sons, Hazelwood House

This is a mid-19th century shop with offices and workshop, built on a corner site as part of the development of New Oxford Street, supervised by Sir James Pennethorne, Surveyor of Works to the Crown. The building is constructed of stucco, with channelled detailing to the first floor and long and short quoins on the second and third floors, which continue on the corner. A decorative guilloche band runs along the second floor. The roof is a slate mansard with dormers.

The building is four storeys high with an attic. It has five windows to the front, a single window to the corner, and a single window to the right-hand return. The ground floor features a fine shopfront dating to the 1870s, constructed of mahogany with plate glass windows. The stallboards are inscribed with painted glass, and there are brass fascia plates. A battered cornice fascia, also of painted glass, is inscribed "Established 1830" above the entrance, flanked by "James Smith & Sons." This is surmounted by a cast-iron trefoil pattern cresting with a central painted glass pediment inscribed "Hazelwood House," flanked by the numbers "53." A recessed central entrance is surrounded by panels of inscribed and engraved glass, the panel above featuring two crossed flags; it has double part-glazed panelled doors with wrought-iron guard gates. A panelled office door is located to the left, with an overlight above. The first floor has recessed sash windows. The second floor has pilasters, paired to the central bay, supporting a third-floor cornice. Pilasters flank tall round-arched sashes, architraved with mask keystones above impost bands, with balustraded window guards; the central window is of a Venetian type. The third floor has pilaster strips flanking square-headed sashes, with the central window flanked by recessed panels and paired pilaster strips. A simplified entablature and blocking course finish the building. Relief applied lettering on the upper floors reads “STICKS” on the third floor, “JAS. SMITH & SONS” on the second floor, and “UMBRELLAS” on the second floor. The chamfered corner continues the window design with inscribed glass pediment to the ground floor; above, channelled stucco and square-headed sashes are complemented by applied lettering reading “UMBRELLAS”. A single window to the return is similar to the central bay.

The ground floor interior retains showcases and counters characteristic of a high-class late Victorian or Edwardian shop and represents a rare survival in London.

Since 1867, the ground floor has been occupied by James Smith & Sons, manufacturers of umbrellas. New Oxford Street was a fashionable shopping street in the mid-19th century.