27-37, WIGMORE STREET W1

Nos 27 to 37 Wigmore Street is a department store built in 1907 by architects William Wallace and James Gibson. The building is entirely faced with white Doulton Carrara tiles and showcases a grand Baroque revival design with a slate roof. It stands five storeys tall and is nineteen windows wide, though not perfectly symmetrical due to the two end bays next to the right-hand splayed corner.

The façade features three segmental pedimented breaks that resemble giant aedicules above the first floor. The ground and mezzanine floors are unified in a giant arcade, with console keys to the archivolts, and the mezzanine is illuminated by lunettes above plate glass show windows. The central break includes a main columned entrance and a pedimented aedicule niche on the first floor. The second and third floors are recessed, flanked by columns beside the central window, and framed by rusticated panelled piers topped with garlanded cartouche caps that extend through the main entablature to a segmental pedimented attic aedicule featuring the crest of the Royal Arms. Behind this is a large, columned aedicule lantern-turret.

The outer segmental pedimented breaks are similar, but with lower pediments topped by groups of putti and a blind attic. The low first floor is channelled with recessed two-light windows separated by columns. The upper floors between the breaks have vertically framed windows that span two storeys, adorned with keyed and garlanded archivolts and articulated by Ionic pilasters. The building is capped with a bold modillion cornice and parapet.

Inside, the building retains a grand marble-clad hall with columns flanking the main flight of marble staircase, along with plasterwork in a range of first-floor rooms overlooking the street, designed by Ernest Gimson.