Randalls Department Store

Randalls Department Store, Vine Street

A furniture shop built in 1938 and designed by the Uxbridge architect William L Eves (1867-1950). The store was created for a family firm established in the late 19th century. It sold furniture, soft furnishings, carpets and kitchenware, reflecting the growth of suburban domestic consumer markets in the early 20th century.

The building is faced in cream faience with Royal Doulton Carraraware detailing and bronze-framed windows, accented with neon lighting. It consists of two storeys of open shop floor, with offices and a delivery bay to the rear.

The main elevation on the north side (Vine Street) emphasises strong horizontal lines through bands of brown Carraraware. These are interrupted by a distinctive square tower to the east of the central section, which features a projecting rectangular double turret on its north-west corner and raised decorative bands of brown Carraraware. An off-centre fin on the tower originally mounted a projecting square clock, now removed. A projecting canopy at ground level spans the full width of the facade, broken into three sections with the central section slightly higher. The canopy is pierced by six rows of small circular glazed lights. Above, the store name appears in bright red neon lettering, with the name repeated in white letters on a black background below the canopy, together with itemised descriptions of goods sold. The store name is set into the terrazzo paving at the entrance, and small bronze roundels containing the letter R are positioned at regular intervals along the black marble plinth beneath the display windows.

The ground floor displays an almost continuous run of plate glass windows set in fluted bronze frames. The recessed shop front features an island display case—a popular commercial feature between 1900 and 1939—flanked by three plate glass windows separating two glazed double doors. Display cases project forward on either side of the island. The first floor has four long metal-framed windows. A 1960s western extension, not of special interest, is attached to the building.

The rear elevation is unfaced brick with a slightly lower central section and irregular fenestration. It is dominated by a single-storey central delivery bay with a glazed pitched roof, flanked by single-storey storage areas topped with glazed lanterns. Behind the delivery bay, the first floor has four metal-framed casement windows. The delivery bay features upward sliding doors with original pulley mechanisms still intact. Beyond this is a range of modest, utilitarian single-storey buildings arranged around two sides of a yard, with two sliding garage doors (one to the east and one to the south) and narrow metal-framed windows.

The interior is modest and traditional in contrast to the exterior. The showroom is a continuous open space broken only by regularly spaced square pillars, some with small cast iron radiators grouped around them. The first-floor extension is open to the showroom space, though the division between them remains clear. The back wall of the showroom is irregular with a central recessed bay flanked by doors to offices and store rooms. To the west is the open cash office, which is the focal point of a pneumatic tube cash system that remains in place, though no longer operational. The stairs to the first floor are set in a recessed bay at the back of the showroom opposite the east entrance doors. They are wood-panelled with square newel posts, rising as a single flight to mezzanine level before dividing into a double dog-leg to the first floor. All doors are original plain wood with moulded wooden architraves. Modern ceilings have been inserted, though the building otherwise remains largely unaltered since construction.

The shop was extended westward in the 1960s, requiring removal of the west wall to open into the new space. Apart from this and minor alterations including the ceiling insertions, the interior is substantially unchanged. The only significant loss has been the clock that projected from the vertical fin on the tower.

Randalls represents a remarkably intact example of a late 1930s shop front in the Modernist style, retaining its rarely surviving island display case and original functional details including the cash desk and pneumatic tube system. The delivery area to the rear also preserves its original functionality.