15 and 16 Market Place, Kingston upon Thames

Shop 1909, for Boots the Chemists by their architect M V Treleaven; extended 1929 by Percy J Bartlett. Sculpted figures probably by Gilbert Searle & Son.

MATERIALS: brick and timber frame, the façade in stucco, with applied timber framing, stone dressings and statuary. Plain tile roofs.

PLAN: purpose-built shop in three bays and four storeys. The original shop occupied the narrower central and left hand bays of the current building and had a symmetrical shop front with a central entrance. When the building was extended by a bay to the right the ground floor shop front was redesigned to create a central entrance. The upper floors of the new wing echo the original design which was adapted slightly to accommodate the extension.

EXTERIOR: is in three gabled bays with first and second floor oriel windows and smaller canted bay windows on the upper floor. Windows have moulded timber cross casements with diamond leaded lights beneath bracketed cornices. Below the second floor windows are coats of arms and insignia. The gables are timber framed with ornate bargeboards and finials. Between each bay is a vertical panel enriched with sculpted figures beneath cusped canopies and with low relief cartouches and heraldic emblems. To the left the figures depict Edward the Elder and Henry; framing the central bay are Edward III and Elizabeth and to the right Althelstan and John.

At first floor level an inscribed panel records that NEAR THIS SPOT WERE CROWNED THE FOLLOWING KINGS / CROWNED AD / EDWARD the Elder 902 / ATHELSTAN 924 / EDMUND 940 / EDRED 946 / EDWY 955 / EDWARD the Martyr 975 / ETHELRED 979

Adjacent to it a moulded panel is inscribed THE / ROYAL BOROUGH/ OF / KINGSTON UPON / THAMES / In 1927 / THE ANCIENT TITLE / OF / ROYAL BOROUGH / WAS / CONFIRMED / TO KINGSTON BY / KING GEORGE V

The shop front, has slender glazing bars above a panelled stall riser and a plain fascia ornamented with squirrels in relief. Above it is a continuous foliate frieze enriched with shields.

INTERIOR: an open well stair at the rear of the building has square newels and a rectilinear balustrade. It is lit by a large window enriched with stained glass which commemorates the crowning of the Saxon kings in Kingston, flanked by civic emblems and shields. Elsewhere stained glass panels commemorate past monarchs and civic dignitaries.