The Pantheon (Marks And Spencers)

This is a shop building constructed in two phases: the main section in 1938 and an extension in the early 1950s, designed by Robert Lutyens with W. A. Lewis and Partners. The special interest lies almost entirely in the Oxford Street frontage; little historic fabric survives inside the building.

Exterior

The stripped classical façade facing Oxford Street has four storeys and nine window bays. The five bays on the right date from 1938, while the four on the left were added in 1951. The ground floor and fascia are modern replacements—the original island display cases were removed long ago—though some white marble cladding survives around the ground floor opening. The upper storeys retain their original appearance. The sleek polished granite surfaces of the upper storeys are varied through the use of different-sized facing slabs at second floor level; these chequerwork panels contribute to the geometrical effect created by the modular cladding system. Above this, six of the nine bays have deep window embrasures two storeys high with simple paterae above the original metal casement windows. A cornice and parapet conclude the principal elevation, the parapet slightly raised and projecting above the central and end bay sections. This façade is the principal surviving part of the original fabric.

The elevation to Great Marlborough Street is of limited architectural quality and dates from the 1970s. The Poland Street elevation has been rebuilt above ground floor level.

The Pantheon stands opposite two other notable shop buildings: the Wrenaissance-style former Waring and Gillow's of 1905-6 by Frank Atkinson and Richard Norman Shaw (Grade II) and the dramatic Mannerist-style former Mappin and Webb building of 1906-8 by Belcher and Joass (Grade II*), the latter also of interest for its pioneering exploitation of steel-frame to allow large display windows. Together, these three buildings form a strong group which showcases the ingenuity of commercial architecture in the Edwardian and interwar periods.

Interior

Behind the façade at ground, first and second floor level, the building has been remodelled several times and is now many times its original size and two storeys higher. It lacks special interest. There is a staircase dating to the 1950s in the Oxford Street facing section of the building, but all other fabric is of recent date. No historic features such as display cabinets, counters, the café, or food hall survive.

History

The Pantheon was built for Marks and Spencer in 1938 to designs by Robert Lutyens, son of Sir Edwin Lutyens, who was appointed consultant architect to Marks and Spencer in 1934. Lutyens designed the façade, while the rest of the store was the work of W. A. Lewis and Partners.

Lutyens used a standardised design for Marks and Spencer stores: stripped classical facades were governed by a grid system of artificial stone slabs in ten-inch square modules and Crittall windows. This modular system could be applied to any frontage width and allowed for extensions at a later date; existing shops could also be refaced. This is well-illustrated at the Pantheon where the expansion of the five-bay wide 1930s shop to nine bays in the early 1950s is untraceable in the façade. The symmetrical elevation desired by Marks and Spencer's Board of Directors was preserved through the repetition of the core elements of the original across the extended façade; the geometry of the original design lent itself to this adaptation very readily. The original neon green signage was also re-centred at this time. Whilst other chain stores such as Woolworths and Montagu Burtons had in-house architects and were developing a house style for their branches in this period, Lutyens devised a generic design for new shops which also allowed the adaptation or extension of existing branches without diluting the house style. Whereas each plot developed by Woolworths or Burtons required a bespoke design, Lutyens' formula could simply be sent to the job-architects who would apply it to a particular site. At least forty stores were built using this method between 1934 and the early 1950s.

The Pantheon was the only branch aside from Leeds where artificial stone was abandoned in favour of highly-polished black 'ebony' granite slabs, a reflection of the prominence of these two branches. The shopfront had a parade of island displays and the interior was richly appointed with walnut counters and wall panelling, teak doors, oak block floors and coffered ceilings; this was unusually lavish as befitted the status of the branch, and all of it has now gone. The café, modelled on the American eatery Wanamaker's luncheonette in Philadelphia, had three curved bars and black and primrose Vitrolite walls. The retail space stretched back to allow entrances on Great Marlborough Street and Poland Street, but was limited to the ground floor. On the upper floors—only the section facing Oxford Street rose to four storeys—were facilities for staff, including cloakroom, dining room, restroom and kitchen. The block to Great Marlborough Street was rebuilt in 1970-2 by Lewis and Hickey; the shop may have also been extended at this time or later, and the overwhelming majority of the fabric behind the Oxford Street section is modern.

The shop's construction in 1938 necessitated the demolition of the Georgian Pantheon of 1769-72 by James Wyatt. This domed building burnt down in 1792, was rebuilt and then remodelled several times over. It served as an assembly house, opera house, theatre, bazaar and wine warehouse. By the 1930s, only the façade to Wyatt's original building survived. In 1937 the Georgian Group attempted unsuccessfully to preserve the façade for re-erection elsewhere, with Marks and Spencer offering to contribute to the cost. Although a design for a country house behind the relocated Pantheon façade was commissioned, the project did not materialise and the stones have since been scrapped.

Established in Leeds in the 1880s by Michael Marks—and in 1894 forming a partnership with Tom Spencer—M&S began as a 'penny bazaar' shop. By the 1920s, the firm was highly profitable and in 1926 public flotation raised sufficient capital for an ambitious programme of investment in new department stores and expansion of the existing stock: 'we are developing a new type of store, and incorporating architectural features which will make them a landmark in their respective towns. We believe that a beautiful building is a constant advertisement, which must result in increased trading', reasoned the company chairman. Between 1926 and the outbreak of the Second World War, 218 new or rebuilt shops were opened and an equal number of existing premises had been extended. The company's other London shop was at Marble Arch. This was, and still is, their flagship London store and designed as a one-off—not according to Lutyens' modular system—by Trehearne and Norman and opening in 1932. The Pantheon, on the other hand, was the most lavish of their regular stores and the culmination of the business's expansion in the 1920s and 1930s.