Universal Providers, 86 Golborne Road

A late-C19 shop front and ground floor interior, fitted out for the David Greig chain of grocery stores.

MATERIALS: tiled front with mahogany frame, plate glass, and iron fittings. Decorative tiled interior with marble work-tops.

PLAN: the shop front faces S on to Golborne Road, and forms the ground floor of a three-storey property. It has a long serving-counter to the E side, and at the rear there is a payment booth, with the remains of a former cold-store behind.

EXTERIOR: the symmetrical shop is double-fronted, with a recessed entrance to the centre. The stall-risers and supporting sections of the front elevation are finished in deep-brown gloss ceramic tiles. The stall-risers are surmounted by pink granite coping. To the right of the entrance there is a large one-over-one pane sash window, and to the left the window is fixed and of a single pane. Above the fenestration a fascia displays the words 'Universal Providers' and the street number '86', in gold leaf lettering behind brown painted glass. An iron canopy frame and security shutter are inset to the soffit of the fascia and there are also horizontal iron display rods. The entrance has a tiled mosaic floor with a large central thistle motif. The mosaic has been repaired in places using brightly coloured filler. The entrance to the shop front has mahogany pilasters framing the plate-glass side-windows. The hardwood front door has two solid panels below, with plate glass above either side of a horizontal transom. The external door handles and letter-box are reclaimed replacements, but the internal bell is original to the shop

INTERIOR: there are display areas at the base of each front window, which are delineated by light-grey marble slabs. The main shop has a tiled counter with a light-grey marbled work-top, which runs the length of the store from front to back on the E side. The walls throughout are covered in cream gloss ceramic tiles, interspersed with thistle detailing, and a deep frieze of green thistle motifs running around the top. The W wall has some damaged tiles where a shelf has been removed. At the rear of the shop the wall is again panelled in ceramic tiles, but here they are the same deep-brown of the exterior. Inset into this wall there is a central payment booth which is surmounted by a tiled round arch with projecting keystone, and counter section below. The booth has some C19 timber fittings. To the W side of the booth there is a vestibule with C20 fittings. To the E there is open access past the booth entrance to a back office area which retains a cold-store door. The floor of the main shop area is made up of mosaic tiles, with Greek key detailing. The ceiling is plain, and fitted with C20 recessed lighting.