Former Knight and Lee Department Store

Former Knight and Lee Department Store

This former department store was built in two phases between 1955 and 1959, designed by Cotton, Ballard and Blow for the John Lewis Partnership.

The building is constructed from concrete and steel, with brick cladding on the side elevations and stair towers. It is a three-storey building with a basement, topped by a flat roof. The footprint is roughly L-shaped, oriented north and south, with the open-plan former shopping area on the west side and offices, storage and staff areas on the east.

The long front elevation faces onto pedestrianised Palmerston Road and curves round to the north-west and south-west. There are three street frontages with several public entrances: one at the north-west corner, two within the Palmerston Road elevation, one next to the south-west corner, and one on Clarendon Road to the south. Stair towers project from the north-west and south corners.

At ground-floor level, a series of shop windows set within stone tile-clad surrounds runs the full length of the long elevation and wraps around the curved corners and along Clarendon Road. A continuous cantilevered concrete canopy runs above the shop windows, raised at the north-west corner entrance. Signage reading 'KNIGHT & LEE' appears at the north-west corner and along the Palmerston Road elevation, with further signage reading 'A BRANCH OF THE JOHN LEWIS PARTNERSHIP' at the south-west corner.

On the first and second floors along Palmerston Road, there are two rows of 17 window bays consisting of metal-framed panes and reflective glass set back within a concrete grid. The first-floor mullions are slightly tapered out to the transom above. The stair towers are lit by columns of windows in concrete frames and faced in brick with projecting headers set in a diamond pattern. The north-west stair tower is curved, while the south tower has a flat profile. The brick elevations along Stanley and Clarendon Road contain regularly spaced grids of small rectangular windows with projecting concrete surrounds. The flat roof is topped with various structural elements including plant rooms, roof lanterns and stairwell tops.

The interior consists largely of open shop floors on all three levels, with subdivided staff and service areas to the east. The public entrances retain a variety of original finishes. The north-west entrance opens into a stairwell with terrazzo flooring and a cantilevered spiral staircase with triangular well and metal banister with hardwood handrail. The northern entrance on Palmerston Road retains a decorative geometric mosaic covering the floor and part of the vestibule wall. The southern entrance on Palmerston Road retains terrazzo flooring and original metal vents. The southern entrance on Clarendon Road has a cantilevered dogleg open-well staircase with terrazzo floor, metal banister and hardwood handrails which taper down to the floor at the newel post. Most entrance doors are multi-pane doors with simple handles; the southern entrance retains an internal pair of timber-framed doors with ornate handles. Stairwells contain a variety of downlights and security lights, some of which may be original, and are accessed at upper levels by pairs of timber-framed fire doors, some retaining security shutters.

The shop floors are supported by plain square columns. On the north-west side is a large central, top-lit open stair rising through all three former shop floors, with angled soffits to the treads, open risers, black terrazzo bands to the treads and a metal banister topped by hardwood handrails with tapered ends. At the centre of the building is a public lift shaft with wood-lined architraves which may be surviving original detailing. At first-floor level, near the centre of the southern part, is the floor aperture and balustrading for the former escalator. Vestiges of original electrical switches and exposed pipes remain at various locations throughout the building. The former staff area on the east side contains two plain concrete staircases with metal banisters and a further lift shaft which may be original. A pair of ground-floor rubber doors lead through to the loading bay in the north-east corner.