Former Kennedy Shop, 20 Westow Hill

Former Kennedy Shop, 20 Westow Hill

This is a shop building with residential accommodation above, dating from around 1910, with a notable Kennedy's chain shopfront and interior installed around 1934. The building is constructed of brown brick with metal casements above a hardwood shopfront and tiled stallriser.

The building occupies a narrow commercial plot on the south side of Westow Hill. The shop itself is a single open space accessed directly from the street, with storage rooms behind (now offices and consulting rooms) and a cellar below. The first floor contains a storeroom, kitchen and bathroom, accessed by an internal stair.

The shopfront features a pair of entrance doors to the left and a display window to the right. The stallriser is faced with green tiles capped with bronze coping. Some tiles carry a relief foliage pattern and are grouped together for decorative effect. The single-pane main window is set in a slim aluminium frame and is surmounted by three timber transom lights with patterned, multi-pane glass arranged around a green stained-glass panel.

The recessed entrance lobby contains late-20th-century paired doors standing within a design that repeats the high-set transom light on the right side. The left side has green tiles to dado level, above which stands a timber mirror. The right side repeats the stallriser tile treatment. The geometric ceiling is formed of white panels set within a slender metal frame. The floor is black and white chequerboard tiles within a triangular border. The doors have a tall glazed upper panel and single timber panel below, set into a timber architrave with a stepped headrail and later "Opticians" signage, surmounted by a square fanlight.

A functional modern fascia board with "Opticians" signage surmounts the shopfront. Behind this, the original streamlined fascia survives. The original "J Kennedy" sign was replaced by an "Opticians" sign to a similar design, thought still to be in situ. The brickwork above is laid in Flemish bond with two multi-paned metal casement windows. The top of the wall has a shallow brick pediment with a stylised keystone formed of three vertical courses of brickwork.

Inside the shop, walls are clad in green tiles to dado level, some with decorative foliage designs grouped to form crosses. Above dado level are white tiles with a frieze of buff tiles surmounted by a darker green border. Fitted mirrors in timber frames are set into arches of buff tiles with inner borders of green decorated with white diamond patterns; some mirrors are late-20th-century additions. The eastern wall has two shelves made from grey marble. Above the upper shelf stand two early-20th-century timber display cabinets with inset mirrors, joined by later timber display cabinets, shelves and a plain timber frieze running around the shop and connecting to late-20th-century display units on the western wall. The shop counter is late-20th-century, constructed of timber and glass. The ceiling is covered in white geometric panels supported by a slender metal frame, with 21st-century pendant lights hanging from metal stems. The floor has a 21st-century covering.

To the rear of the shop space is a centrally located four-panel solid door with a fitted mirror on the shop side. The rooms to the rear are laid out to a later plan with functional fixtures and fittings. The cellar and first-floor rooms are plain and functional.