3-5, Thane Villas

Commercial premises and factory, built in 1909 for Fletcher, Fletcher and Company Ltd, a manufacturing chemist business. The building replaced two mid-19th century semi-detached villas and served as the factory, commercial space and offices for the company until the 1960s, when it was purchased by Vortex Jersey Ltd.

EXTERIOR

The building presents a large three-storey façade to the street in the Queen Anne style, with a three-storey elevation plus attic, rendered in red brick. The street frontage is impressive and ornate, featuring fine brickwork, a hipped roof with dormer window, large chimneys, and a prominent dentil cornice with scrolled console brackets at intervals. A series of pilasters divides the elevation into three main parts.

The southern section forms the entrance bay, distinguished by a large pediment bearing a date-stone cartouche and a porch with a deep stone arched canopy supported by scroll brackets carved with cherub heads. The two bays to the north are identical, featuring an arcade of rounded windows at ground floor level and mullion windows above, all with stone surrounds. The frames on the upper storeys have been replaced. This ornate composition with high-quality details houses the wholesale outlet and offices of the company, concealing the industrial nature of the building behind.

To the rear stands a former loading section for vehicles and a six-bay factory in rendered brick with metal windows and external fire-escape staircases. A glazed red brick wall encloses the forecourt.

INTERIOR

The pretensions of the façade extend throughout the interior of the wholesale commercial space and company offices. An original timber door leads into a panelled entrance hall with a grand timber Jacobean staircase. Of particularly special interest is a historic automatic door, operating on a system of weights and pulleys which trigger the opening of the double doors when a visitor stands on a large pad in front of them—an unusual feature in commercial buildings of the era.

The main ground floor space is divided by a wooden partition with round-headed glazed openings and two doors. A staircase was inserted into the large ground floor room in the late 20th century. The upper floors contain large rooms likely to have served as showrooms or offices. The company director's office may be the one strategically located in the centre of the activity on the ground floor, which contains an Adam-style fireplace and internal windows looking onto the surrounding areas. Several original doors survive throughout the building.

The factory to the rear is arranged on three floors with interior walls of cream and green glazed brick. The attic storey has a double-pitched roof with north-facing slopes glazed to lighten the room for manufacturing activities. A separate large stone staircase with an elegant metal handrail in an Art-Nouveau influenced design serves the factory floors. This utilitarian staircase with metal balusters provides clear contrast to the grand timber staircase serving the offices and commercial areas.

ARCHITECTURAL AND HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE

The building is of special architectural interest for the quality of its façade, a handsome composition well-executed in good quality materials with fine points of detail including the terracotta date-stone cartouche in the pediment and the cherubic scroll brackets to the deep arched porch canopy. The brickwork is of particularly high quality. The combination of an architectural, grand and almost civic frontage with a much plainer working range to the rear is comparable to other listed manufactories and company offices.

The building retains several features of note including panelling, a glazed partition, a fireplace and the rare historic automatic door. The difference between the manufacturing and commercial spaces is clearly marked by two staircases of special interest: the utilitarian stone staircase with metal balusters providing access to the factory, and the grand timber Jacobean staircase serving the offices and commercial areas. The building has been little altered since its construction.